It's Called Change
by TheWingedOne
Summary: Change- you'd better get used to it, especially when an insane... thing turns you into a dragon for strange reasons. Well, change can't be so bad after you've been Hiccup and Astrid. Right? Post-movie, you guess the pairings. No CanonxOCs, so don't worry.
1. The Cave

**THIS, children, is what happens when you stay up until three in the morning typing a random fanfic from one of your random plot bunnies. Plot bunnies are goooood.**

**Title is subject to change. Any suggestions?  
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_Ah, well, hello there. I haven't seen anyone here for a long time..._

_Watch your language! I mean no threat to you. Eheheh, feisty type, aren't you? Pipe down for a moment, and I'll tell you what's going on._

_This place may seem like an endless black void, but it's a transformation chamber. Because you wandered down to the depths of this cave out of curiosity- or maybe something else, eheh- you've stumbled upon this place. Don't call you 'girl'? What else should I call you? Astrid, that's a pretty name._

_Anyways, have you noticed the white markings on the walls of this cave as you came in? Yes, those were the words of a prophecy. Only I can read them, and I'm not telling you exactly what they said._

_But they did say that a girl would appear. Well, specifically, two humans... but what does that matter? One is good enough... Astrid, don't shy away- come closer, I haven't seen a human, not a human in such a long time..._

_I was here long before the Vikings of your age came here... what's your friend's name again? Hiccup? Such a silly name. Don't insult him? Oh, do you like him? Oh, don't deny it, I can see it in your eyes. You can't punch me, girl- I'm already as good as dead anyways._

_Mhmm... where was I? Ah. That's right. You are the girl of the prophecy scribbled on these walls. There is a war, far away from the island that is your world, a war between dragons and dragons. Dragons of the waters, lurkers of the seas, warring against the dragons of the skies, claiming dry land and soaring over the endless spaces. Girl, which would you rather be in? Skies? I wouldn't blame you; flying is such a wonderful thing. Yes, I am a dragon... as well as everything else you could ever think of._

_I could rattle on about my curse to look over these tunnels in which you are lost in, but I prefer not to. You must change soon. What do I mean? Astrid, why do you think I asked you whether you would lurk the skies or the seas?_

_Do not panic. This will be the chance of your lifetime, as well for the warring dragons..._

_Then, maybe you can help them._

_And me._

* * *

**One month later**

* * *

A month.

An agonizing month of agonizingly agonizing physical and mental pain. A month of agony for Hiccup, a month of agony from his agonizingly aching metal leg which he refused to let anyone know about. Anyone but the healer, though, who apparently was too old for her job when she thought nothing of his angry-red skin.

Hiccup wasn't stupid. He knew his leg was infected, but didn't want to show anyone else. Well, he was about to tell someone that could help him, until he learned that Astrid went missing.

Oh, the gods help him,_ Astrid_. Why, _Astrid_. The independent one that could always fend for herself, and did just so, until now.

Her unfaithful dragon returned with only scared cries, otherwise alone...

His agonizingly painful leg grew even more agonizingly painful after that.

Soon Hiccup was sick of the word agonizing, and sick of the pain, so he stooped to the level of letting Toothless carry him around on his back to get around the village of Berk. Toothless could smell his leg. He knew it was bad, and he knew that it was infected, and to Hiccup's stupidly proud dismay, he always tried to get someone else to see to it and treat it.

So, with a worried whimper, Hiccup's best friend looked at his glistening leg, all infected skin concealed from sight, and let the boy board on him. Hiccup felt particularly grumpy. Two weeks ago, everyone but him and Astrid's parents had given up on finding the girl.

It had been only a month and a half since the defeat of the gigantic 'queen' dragon, with six maliciously glistening eyes. Hiccup could only shrug off the painful memories, but they haunted him, made him feel weak with fear...

He shook them off.

He led Toothless out the door, the dragon snorting and whimpering and whining and insisting that he find a way to treat the boy's leg. Hiccup had planned to set off looking for Astrid, at most, his best _human_ friend, by searching islands that were a quarter day away on the back of his pet, friend and steed all in one. This would take days longer by ship, but if the boy and his dragon traveled fast, they could cover some new islands and get back home by midnight...

Of course, Hiccup set a note for his father on where he went and where he was going. The handicapped boy was stubborn, however kind and awkward he was, as well as a major klutz; his artificial leg didn't help that status, either.

Hiccup hooked his 'foot' into the place where he could change the gears of Toothless's tail-fin. The boy spoke softly to his dragon as he piled up a basket full of fish, as well as a hearty lunch for himself.

Then they were off, and they searched the nearby islands happily. Hiccup drew well, that's for sure, so he plotted the islands on his self-made map. He once lost a map in the wind during a rowdy flight with Toothless, and it wasn't fun trying to make a new one.

Toothless was getting tired, and Hiccup didn't blame him. There was an island they already explored below; they could have lunch there, since it was basically made of rock, and there were only Terrible Terrors...

But then a lush green island came into the corner of Hiccup's view- an island he had never seen before, apparently covered by the constant mist that always seemed to be too thick to even fly through. But there was no mist now- only a clear sky, and the island looked so inviting...

Toothless saw the island too, but he seemed a thousand times less enthusiastic. Wailing out in horror, the dragon pulled away from the island abruptly, barely giving Hiccup a chance to shift tail-fin positions to the turn.

But something strange about the island drew the boy toward it. He didn't want to ignore his dragonic friend's cries of fear, though. But the unanswered reason why the dragon was so horrified didn't help his hungering curiosity, either. Curiosity kills the dragon, the other Vikings always used to say.

Hiccup and Toothless flew toward the island.

* * *

It was a good lunch, and Toothless was more than happy to be finally able to get off the island. It seemed that every five seconds, the dragon threw apprehensive looks over his shoulder, like a stalked mouse. Hiccup couldn't figure out what made his friend so anxious- if anything, he was drawn toward it because of his curiosity.

Hiccup didn't take the chance of boarding his dragon, in case Toothless tried to fly away without giving Hiccup any choice. His leg felt better than usual, anyways. So he walked toward the center of the island.

He noticed that Toothless seemed more and more anxious as the two trekked nearer to the isle's heart. Hiccup, at this point, had to know what was causing this. The curiosity, it burned as much as it did when he first thought of following Toothless after releasing the Night Fury.

So he walked deeper into the forest, Toothless yipping and whining and clawing at the ground. Hiccup wasn't listening anymore. The dragon wailed as he saw the glaze over his friend's eyes, the way he now trekked, as if he were sleepwalking...

At last, the no longer fully conscious boy and his yelping dragon came to a cave.

The cave.

And in he walked.

* * *

_I've been waiting for you, boy. Where are you? How did you get here? You had to come here, you see-_

Hiccup tried to stand and failed, falling back on his bottom and rubbing his head with a moan. It was all a void. Something made him come in here, and now he couldn't go back. Toothless was gone for some reason, Toothless didn't follow him in, and he couldn't ride Toothless back to the village where he could be safe. Now he was stuck in a black void, and everything seemed a bit more blurred, and now he had a migraine, great, and now there was a voice in his head-

_-because your friend is here, boy, your friend-_

His friend? Who was his friend? Who was he, anyways? Hiccup? That was his name, right? And-

_-your friend, Astrid, boy, Hiccup, your friend, you like her, right? Astrid-_

What appeared to be a girl with blond hair materialized many yards away. Hiccup stared in horror. It was Astrid, but it wasn't- she had a slick black tail with four fins at the end and ebony claws instead of fingers. Her forelegs were of a dragon's, scaled and all, and she seemed to have fangs. She seemed to be in pain, with great ashen wings flapping feebly, as she clawed at the nonexistent ground-

_-ahaha, boy, boy! I'm going to be free, you see, I had to lead you here, you two had to transform together, I've been going MAD keeping her intact here-_

Astrid moaned and turned over. She was fully clothed. She yelped in a way that didn't seem exactly human as she rolled onto her new wings, and turned over again, groaning and still clawing at the ground in pain-

_COME HERE!_

Icy cold claws gripped Hiccup by the shoulders. He shrieked- the claws emitted cold that seemed burning, and he struggled to get free, only making the pain worse. He collapsed on the ground, panting and moaning like a sick dog-

_-ahaha, boy, I'll be sane again soon, you need to fulfill the prophecy if you want to return, if you ever want to come back-_

Hiccup moaned. Something seemed to change; something pushed out of his back with agonizing pain, and his legs and arms began itching like mad. Not daring to look over himself, he stole a glance at Astrid. Everything was blurry, and his vision seemed to constantly change- sometimes sharper than usual, but usually almost blind. Astrid wasn't doing too well, either. Hiccup could see claw marks on the so-called ground, etched into whatever invisible platform they were laying on. Another spasm of pain rushed through the boy, and his neck seemed to grow a bit longer-

_-and you'll finish the prophecy, yes, you'll do, you'll set me free! Ahaha-_

The world went as black as the void.

* * *

Toothless didn't follow.

He was damned. The subject of all his loyalty, of all the love of friendship, walked into that wretched cave, and he didn't follow. Walking into that cave was against every fiber of his being, but not following his friend and at least trying to save him from impending doom was against himself as well. But he still didn't walk into the cave. And now, Toothless knew, that Hiccup was gone forever.

Little did the seemingly possessed Hiccup know, this cave was sacred to the dragons. He didn't know the secrets of this cave, this cave with the ivory carvings. How this very cave had taken his friend.

But something inside the dragon knew otherwise.

The dragon knew of the water and sky clans, of their ancient quarrel, of the dangers that surrounded them. Their homes, said to be in the north, were feared, any intruders forbidden upon entrance. They were fables, dragon fables, fables his mother (which was certainly not lightning) and his father (which was definitely not death) told him as a child before they were slayed by the old master dragon. It could take days straight to get there, if it was even real...

But the dragon knew that that was were Hiccup was now.

The winged reptile stared at his tail. He would fly to the north, but he could not fly without his rider. Toothless fell to the ground, clutching his head with a wail. Then he jumped up.

He could _swim_.

Toothless could swim to the north. It would take days... maybe even weeks. But he would swim to the north.

Toothless set out for the northern shore.

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**And that concludes a totally random fanfic idea.**

**...**

**What the HELL is wrong with my mind!**

**Oh, yeah. Is it HiccupxAstrid? Be patient, fools, yes, it will be. Soon. Sooner. Ahaha.**


	2. Dragonified

**It's kind of sad, but I've never had this many hits/views on a story. And my other stories are multi-chaptered. I guess it's because it's Kingdom Hearts stuff, and you see that everywhere.**

**Anyways, you're making a writer feel good.  
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Astrid woke up the next morning aching all over.

She felt like she was on a flat bed, on the ground. Something was curled over her extended neck and tail- she guess that was Toothless. Wings overlapped her own. She grumbled, struggling to get out of Toothless's grasp-

Wait, what? Extended neck? Tail? _Wings?_

Astrid jumped forward with inhumane swiftness, earning a lazy groan from whatever was curled up next to her.

She turned to face the creature.

There was a kind of dragon she had never seen or heard of in her life.

Her blue eyes stretched wider than wide, and she bellowed a screech that would beat any Thunder Drum. Only seeing a four-finned tail sweeping in front of her- _her_ tail- made her scream louder.

Hiccup jumped up, green eyes blaring in the sun as he stared at the screeching dragon before him. For a moment, he thought that the nightmare of transforming into a dragon was just a dream, that this was Toothless, who finally snapped from being on the island-

But then he saw ice cold eyes with scared, narrowed pupils, how this dragon had four fins on its tail and no fins at its tail's base, and a whole other bout of differences that he couldn't name at the moment. "S-stop!" he tried telling the dragon, who he thought was female, but his cry somehow overlapped and only turned into a loud roar. He stood up on his legs, but apparently, those were now to be called his hind legs now, because he fell over.

The female stopped screeching like a banshee and curled up into a protective ball, but that was only one of Hiccup's worries. His legs felt strange. They were shaped differently, as well as his arms being a bit more chubby than usual. He brought his hands up to his face and saw claws, five of them with an opposable thumb for each. The boy bit his tongue to keep from screaming like the other dragon, but instantly stopped because his newly sharpened teeth pierced it.

He searched over himself, finding a four-finned tail like the female, but, again, no fins at his tail's base. After staring at this tail for a moment, he tried flexing his fins. They only twitched. Hiccup could hardly control this new tail, anyways, so he would have to save that for later.

Then he moved on to studying his wings. He remembered that these wings were the first thing that grew from him when he was turning into this dragon, so he tried moving them. Right now, they felt like stiff, wooden appendages, and did not heed his command at all to spread out. It seemed like his whole body was a shining ebony color. Hiccup moaned, then looked around him.

He was on an island, but not the island where he was last. He and the female dragon were on a wide beach, seemingly stretching across at least half of the island's shore. The sea looked warm and inviting, but when Hiccup stumbled over to it with unadjusted legs, and stuck a claw-hand in the water, it was cold and sent shivers up his spine.

Hiccup instinctively drew away from the water, and then slowly crept up on the female to check her out from a closer range.

Astrid was watching the other dragon, who stuck his (she thought it was male) claw in the water and had now turned and started creeping up on her, like she was his next meal. Her eyes were hidden by her wings, so anyone would think she was asleep. She was curled up in the equivalent of a dragon's fetal position. She started to shake; she was defenseless, without her signature axe, any weapon... what the heck? Astrid? Defenseless?

If she really _had_ to be a dragon, then that meant she had claws, fangs, strong wings, a muscled tail, and most importantly, the power to breathe fire. Though a downfall because she had no idea how to use any of these things, they could also help, somehow, or at least scare the other dragon away.

She suddenly leaped to her feet, only barely managing not to collapse again. Her legs weren't steady enough to support her- they were too untrained, flimsy and flailing.

Nonetheless, she saw the other dragon flinch, cowering down. She pulled her lips back in a sneering snarl that felt fake on her wider mouth, advancing slowly toward the enemy so she wouldn't trip. The dragon cowered even lower, nonetheless, and his green eyes grew wide, pupils looking threatening although only narrowed out of fear.

The eyes reminded her of her friend Hiccup. She drew her head as high as she could, which wasn't very high on her new, unusual neck, and growled at the male. He cowered down even _lower_, if that was even possible.

"What's your name?" she spat more than said, then instantly felt stupid. She spoke English! Why would she expect this unknown dragon to understand her?

She was more than surprised when the male dragon replied. "H-Hiccup," he whined, looking up with fearful eyes.

"Hiccup!" Astrid's eyes grew wide and she bounded up close to her dragonified friend, a grin on plastered on her face. "It's me, Astrid!"

"_Astrid?_" Hiccup scoffed with a strange, new-found boldness. He tilted his head. "How can _you_ be _Astrid?_ You're acting far to happy to be _Astrid-_"

Astrid promptly balled up her claw, hand, _thing_, and slugged him in the face.

The punch wasn't very hard by her standards, because she wasn't used to her limbs, but it still appeared to inflict pain, because Hiccup rubbed his seed-shaped head and drew back his ears. "Okay, I believe you."

"Good, now we have to find out what in Odin happened here," she snorted before trotting and tripping toward the beginnings of the lush forest that made up most of the island, Hiccup following her.

"We should at least learn how to use our new bodies," Hiccup protested, trailing after her and clawing at her tail softly to stop, "before we try to go off into wherever."

Astrid looked over he shoulder at him, causing her neck to hurt by the slight movement. He flinched at her piercing gaze. He was right; she could barely even move her limbs without falling over. Neither of them could fly, breathe fire, hunt, protect themselves, or even walk freely because of their new legs, now having four of them and their hind legs being so unusually shaped. They were like newborn babies, and particularly easy picks for enemies, particularly, other dragons.

"Okay, oh great and mighty dragon-master, what do you think we should do?" she huffed, stumbling over to the middle of the beach and sitting down. Hiccup noticed that she sat down like Toothless did, folding his wings back and looking down at him in a domesticated manner, like a cat with a friendly dog's mind. Still, eating that raw fish wasn't fun.

He sat down in the same way in front of his female friend. She studied him for a moment, probably taking in the fact that he was a dragon, then stared at his eyes as if to make sure he was human. Then she huffed out a big sigh. "I guess we should learn how to walk, then?"

She went on all fours without waiting for the boy's answer and started shuffling around. Hiccup immediately saw that she was doing it all wrong. She was walking like a penguin, joints completely stiff as if they were made of wood.

Speaking of wood, he looked at his left hind leg and cried out in delight. No artificial leg was there; it was as good as any leg, as well as all of his tail-fins.

He caught Astrid staring at him strangely. "My leg's back," he called out.

She stiff-leggedly 'walked' over to him, then intrusively sniffed his leg. Hiccup felt his tail slap happily against the sand, but subconsciously, and willed it to stop. It didn't.

"That's great," she said dully, as if determined not to feel happy, now that Hiccup pointed out that she was acting way more happily than she usually did. Hiccup felt his new ears go down with his new lips, and even his wings, and his tail curled around his feet in his sitting posture.

"What the heck?" Astrid drew back as Hiccup's eyes grew large and watering. "I swear, you're going to become a depressed Toothless if that keeps up."

Hiccup's eyes grew wider, but he jumped to his feet. "Toothless! I left him on the island, I was looking for you again, but I couldn't think right, I had to go into the cave, it just-"

"Hiccup?" Astrid said slowly. "You were looking for me... _again_? How long have I been gone?"

"A month," Hiccup stated bluntly.

"Oh. Let's learn to walk now, kay?" she said abruptly, walking off again as if she had pegs for legs, and seeming stiffer than ever now that she received that news.

Hiccup tilted his head after her. "Well, for one, use your _joints_..."

* * *

Toothless had been swimming for hours. He had been built for flying, not swimming, and his short, chubby legs ached more than the time he had raced other dragons on land for hours on end...

He had caught a fish, and he was carrying it in his mouth, making his mouth water like mad. At the moment, he was seeking some kind of rock or land to take shelter on as he ate. Toothless had gills, invisible to the human eye, though they were usually unused, until now, were they flapped like mad for the surrounding water's oxygen.

At last, there was a rock. He heaved himself onto its flat surface, thanking the gods for a wide surface, though slick from a rainy downpour. Raining it was, as Toothless sunk his teeth into the fish greedily.

After he was done, the dragon rolled over onto his back. He had enough of the wet, and now it was raining, making him feel cold. He curled up into a ball, seeking warmth from himself. Loneliness set over him. He was cold, wet, alone, and missing his rider dearly. It was the only thing that was keeping him going, for now. Toothless placed his tail across his short muzzle, breathing out a hint of flames, and went to sleep.

* * *

About an hour had passed. Astrid and Hiccup had managed to learn how to walk, sort of. Their legs were still stiff, still awkward, but they were able to stumble around without falling. In fact, they could jog a little as well- well, at least the equivalent of jogging.

Now they were trying to learn how to run. After learning how to walk, this was faster in progress, and almost felt easier. Astrid copied Toothless from the times she watched him running; she ran by springing in bounds, and actually found it easier than walking. Hiccup had a little more difficulty, but both mastered it by half an hour.

"So, should we go in the forest now?" Astrid said impatiently after practicing running and walking a bit more.

"I don't think so. Who knows what could be in here? And we can barely run away," Hiccup reasoned. He was distractedly drawing the dragon-transformed Astrid in front of himself. The real Astrid stared at it, muttering some sour words that sounded like 'Barely? Ha!' with lazily half-closed eyes.

"Well, what do you think we should do? Learn how to fly?" The prospect of flying filled both of the teens with excitement, though they both knew that it would be impossible at the moment, now only being barely able to control their wings and tail.

"We can't," Hiccup stated obviously, "But we can learn to breathe fire, since we can at least control our faces."

Both of them tried, but were surprised as well as delighted when sparks showered from their mouths. They shared ideas about how to breathe fire- they tried imagining the fire being breathed, or maybe huffing it up. They got better, actually causing fires that lingered on the sandy beach for a few seconds, and scorched some sand black until it shifted around from the dragons' footprints. In the end, they were able to spit small blobs of fire, hopefully able to burn any potential predators that weren't dragons and steer them away.

Night had fallen, and Hiccup and Astrid only noticed it until now. They decided to settle on the sands for now, trusting their newly sharpened senses to warn them if they needed to be wakened, though it would have been smarter if they took turns taking watch...

Hiccup and Astrid slept apart. They curled up, now slightly more controlling of their new limbs, and wrapping their tails into comfortable positions with much difficulty. More than once Astrid caught Hiccup trying to worm next to her, and whether for warmth or to satisfy his affections for her, she didn't like it. But at the sixth try, her own self being cold and the lack of sleep- thanks to Hiccup- made her gave in. Hiccup and Astrid lay on the beach side by side, sharing their new bodies' heat.

They didn't hear the near-silent wing beats of oncoming dragons.

* * *

**I love making cliffhangers, though this isn't my best. Cliffhangers are chicken soup for the soul.**


	3. Free Fallin'

**...I think that I'm making the characters OOC. Especially Hiccup. I'm having trouble with figuring out his personality. Any tips?**** o3o**

**Also, be aware that this is a lovechild spawn of my mind plus a recent obsession with dragons due to this very movie. e_e I'm not entirely thinking about what I'm writing, nor do I have an entire idea of where it's going. Ahaha.**

**Also, I'm probably going to do a chapter per review or so. Depends. Kinda sad, but reviews are happiness. But that's only for now, it might change...  
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**I'll go away now.  
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"Hiccup. _Hiccup_."

It was the dead of night, the stars glistening overhead with a blissful ignorance. It had just rained, Astrid could tell, but the two of them had not noticed it, protected by their scales. Astrid would have dragged the boy behind a bush if they were human, but right now, Astrid could barely use her limbs.

She had woken up to the sound of wavering wing beats, steadily growing louder, closer. Astrid finally kicked the teen in the stomach, making his eyes open wide. He jerked.

"What was that for?" he protested, "I was having a really good dream."

"This only proves that boys never wake up when they need to," Astrid snorted. But Hiccup pricked his ears unintentionally, hearing the beat of dragon wings from afar.

"We need need hide," both of them hissed simultaneously. They clumsily got to their feet. Both felt stiffer than ever. Hiccup resisted a noisy moan.

However aching her legs were, Astrid was bounding toward a forest bush. She didn't bother motioning to Hiccup, who stalled for a few moments before attempting to follow the girl (and falling over his own feet a few times). The two stared out from their cover, Astrid kicking Hiccup multiple times to keep him from getting too close, Hiccup resisting the urge to whine like a scared baby dragon. Wait...

Dragons that looked similar to themselves landed on the beach. The hiding former humans held their breath- Astrid out of her rare fear, and Hiccup out of awe. Each of the foreign dragons had their distinguishable features- scales with roan and sheen, scars and different body shapes. But each looked like their own species all together.

They appeared to be mumbling to themselves. Astrid strained to hear. Were they speaking, or grunting? Did one of them just say 'fish'?

There were about six of them, though they were an ebony color, so others could easily be hidden in the night. A couple smoothly slid into the water, already catching a few tiny fish and gobbling them down before stopping. Their necks were stretched to the highest, so that their heads barely reached over to the surface. It was obvious that they were using some sort of fishing technique.

By this time, Astrid knew that the strange dragons were speaking words she could understand, if not English. She was trying not to breathe too fast.

"Should we talk to them?" Hiccup breathed.

"_No way_," Astrid hissed, "they might be dangerous."

Hiccup rolled his big eyes and scoffed. "Which is_ exactly _why we keep pet dragons at home."

"This is _different_," Astrid snapped quietly, watching in half-awe, half-terror as the rest of the dragons flew out to the deeper end of the sea, apparently seeking out bigger fish. "They can _speak_. They can _plan_."

"We might be able to understand them because _we're_ dragons, now, and _they're_ just speaking dragon," Hiccup protested.

"_Might_," Astrid seethed stubbornly.

They continued to bicker heatedly until the strange dragons left with hearty catches on their back. Astrid snorted at the boy that considered her a friend (everyone kissed the hero! Come on!). She considered him a friend, just a good friend. But, she certainly didn't think of him as an interest for infatuation, though she knew all to well his affections for her. But, then again, at this point, she didn't care whether she was lying to herself or not.

When did this pop into her mind? She growled at herself and cursed the boy next to her mentally, tail swishing subconsciously in aggravation. She stormed off deeper into the forest, footsteps loud and causing the birds in the forest to go silent out of fear. She could hear Hiccup lurking after her, as well as her tail thudding against tree branches and causing a few of them to creak over.

That would teach_ them_.

She continued to stomp toward the heart of the island frustratedly.

Until she fell.

She yelled out as her last footstep landed on empty air. She was hurled off balance instantly. Astrid had fallen over a cliff and was now falling down a hole that a dragon's eyes could not see the bottom of.

Of course, Hiccup was watching.

"Astrid!" he shouted, bounding forward and accidentally falling off the cliff himself. He could plainly see Astrid flailing her limbs, wings useless and tail occasionally hitting the cliff's rock, which looked painful.

Hiccup wailed, his cries echoing around the hole with Astrid's. This wasn't a cliff; it was a canyon.

But suddenly, Hiccup's wings caught the wind. He was upright, his wings causing settled dust to show in choking clouds. Hiccup could feel himself slowing, the wind being caught by his wings...

Then he realized that Astrid was still falling.

Maybe it was the adrenaline driving him crazy, but Hiccup found himself folding those wings- _his_ wings, now responding to him for once- and dropping. He slightly extended them again, and found himself streaming toward the girl. He was in range now- he had to grab her-

He reached out, but his wings caught and he felt as if the wind just threw him upwards. He tried again, wings slightly extended, reaching out, right there-

The wind caught again, and he was swirling around like mad, unable to bring his now aching wings to his commands. He almost hit the canyon's side, but did a barrel roll away from it. He caught sight of Astrid, who apparently passed out.

He could see the ground, the ground that meant instant death upon impact.

Something sparked his will. He found himself shooting down like a missile, felt all four legs clawing on to Astrid's scales, felt the wind deafening him, felt what could be his doom-

And his wings caught. He wanted to hoot and scream out his success, but he couldn't do so yet. He still had to slow down- he was still going toward the ground, fast as ever- he was slowing, going slower, not slow enough-

Was it slow enough-

The last thing he heard was two thuds before he blacked out.

* * *

Hiccup blinked wearily, feeling stiff and weak. Where was he? How long had he been asleep? Who was the figure next to him?

The bottom of a canyon. Half a day. Astrid the dragon.

The questions he answered for himself woke him up. The once-human teen groaned, feeling as if the hard rock beneath him had been embedded into him. He looked around blearily, trying to get his eyesight to focus. It wouldn't; Hiccup could only hope that he hadn't damaged his eyes, but he could still see the figure next to him.

He rolled Astrid over, earning a slight moan from her. Hiccup could not remember a time when he had seen the human Astrid weak, so it seemed as if this dragon were a completely different... er... person.

Hiccup felt his tail sway at his command, and could actually feel his wings now. Apparently, he needed that rush to get the blood flowing in his newest body parts. But at what expense?

Hiccup swirled in a circle, letting his tail drag in the mostly undisturbed ground. He coughed in the cloud of dust that rose, then confirmed that he was uninjured, save for numerous cuts and bruises that he could feel quite well beneath his scales. Small rocks beneath other scales in his body itched like mad, especially those that he couldn't reach...

The boy felt exhausted, and dropped on the ground, closing his eyes. He moaned at himself when he was reminded that he needed to check over Astrid as well.

He dragged himself across the ground, not willing to go through the effort of lifting his head. Opening his eyes, he found a scaly Astrid in front of him, looking as ironically _vulnerable_ as ever.

He placed he claws softly on her side and heard her sniff. Luckily, light filtered from the afternoon sun into the canyon, since the orb of heat was directly centered into the crack that made the gap.

Hiccup pushed himself up into a lazy sitting position, like Toothless's. He carefully looked over the subject of his infatuations, then delicately turned her over.

He could plainly see the rocks under her scales, but otherwise, she didn't seemed harmed on the exterior. Hiccup wasn't a healer; he only knew how to find broken bones, but in a potentially painful way, and that was for humans.

Nonetheless, he carefully felt along the dragonic body. He felt his skin flushing beneath the clot of scales that partially made up his face, until Astrid took in a sharp breath.

Hiccup instantly drew away, staring at the spot he had just pressed against. He felt it again, and Astrid breathed in again, even more sharply than before. Hiccup sighed in relief; if he was correct, then her rib was just bruised...

_If_ he was correct...

Now, how was he going to get out of here? Even if he could fly, he had no idea how to carry Astrid safely to the top of the tall canyon. His tail swished thoughtfully, then stiffened as fear struck him. There was no food here, no water- and he was starving as well as parched, along with the fact that he had almost no chances of escape. He was probably going to die here.

_Great._

But, then again, he was the one that tamed a Night Fury, the one that blew up a giant 'queen' dragon and traded his leg for it, then suffered a week of pain when the leg got infected-

He was an idiot! If he had gotten that leg treated earlier, he could have gone after Astrid when she flew off on her Deadly Nadder after a fight with her mom. He could have stopped her from going into that cave, and they would have never heard of it again, and he would probably just be sick in bed right now because Toothless made Hiccup fly with him during that last rainstorm.

Then again, he was _still_ the one that tamed a Night Fury, blew up a gigantic dragon on his first fight, and suffered with a lost limb.

He stood, looking around. Dust, rock, and more dust.

Then he noticed a hole.

He realized that large holes were scattered across the canyon ground, big enough for him to fit through. He looked down into them, and realized that they twisted and curved, making tunnels. Although he had no idea where they would lead, he could always find his way back if he needed to. Right?

He wasn't feeling entirely sure. So he trotted over to Astrid, laying her horizontally on his back after a bit of difficulty. She was a bit heavy; this is dragons we're talking about, however strong or light they are. Hiccup slowly walked forward, picking a tunnel, and dived in.


	4. Tunnel Phobia

**Bribe me with reviews and I'll put out more chapters.**

**But I have school to tend to as well. Now, to do my homework...**

**Baaah, I was very long with this one... and it was originally pretty short until I threw in some more details and made it slightly more... comprehensible.  
**

* * *

The tunnels seemed endless. Every twist and turn led to another twist and turn. Hiccup had been wandering in the bowels of these tunnels for over an hour, and he had tried every trick he knew to find his way back, but failed to find the light again.

Even with his newly enhanced senses, he could see nothing. It was pitch black here, and apparently very deep underground, because the only noise was the pitter-patter of his own rhythmic footsteps against the hardened, rocky ground.

Astrid had been breathing hard, but just now, it was hard enough to be noticeable over Hiccup's footsteps. Whether that was or wasn't a good sign, Hiccup didn't know; he could only hope to the gods that he would find some way out, and see what was wrong with her.

His stomach growled ferociously, and he found his tongue rolling out from his mouth. He was famished and parched; when was the last time he ate? Who knows how long he and Astrid had been sleeping on that beach. But other than that, it had been about a day and a half of no food or drink...

The rumors of dragons surviving for days, and even weeks- Hiccup groaned at the thought of _that_- without any means of food or drink might be true, but Hiccup was still not used to his new body. He felt his tail dragging hopelessly through the soft, foot-crushed soil...

Wait, when did the ground start feeling soft? Hiccup looked down in bewilderment, finding that he could see his own feet. The rush of a cool breeze was filtering through the tunnel. The ground below may have been tread on by unknown creatures, even ancient dragons, but as long as he could find a way out, along with- maybe- a food and a drink, he didn't really care.

Soon the slight scent of plants filled his head. He sneezed on some drifting pollen; the light was almost blinding now, even if it was the middle of the night and the only light was from the moon. Then he realized that the exit was directly at his side, covered by only a bit of dirt and supposedly surrounded by flowers. Hiccup turned and scratched at the dirt lightly, flinching as much more moonlight flooded into the tunnel. Whoever- or whatever- covered hole this didn't do a very good job. Nonetheless, Hiccup crawled up silently, having to stop a couple of times to keep Astrid laying across his back.

As he emerged, cool air blasted at him. He was in a very large clearing. Wait- strike that, trees were littered among the area in clumps. But the whole partially-clear area was surrounded by the tree's forest. Littered among the clearing were caves of all sizes.

But who cared about clearings? He had found the way out of those stupid tunnels, even if it meant half a day's worth of mindless wandering, plus a chance of new-found tunnel-phobia (wonderful, yet _another_ phobia to add to the list). He carefully slipped Astrid off his back, then sucked in a deep breath to yell out his triumph-

-which probably wasn't the best idea, he thought, as he was tackled to the ground.

* * *

An angry dragon's face spat into Hiccup's own. Its claws dug into his chest, but it made no noise, as if its whole body was muted.

Hiccup's jaws were half-open in a silent scream. The dragon was baring its teeth, eyes narrowed to the thinnest of slits, threatening snarls rumbling in the depths of its throat, as if struggling not to make noise and tear him- the intruder- apart.

Hiccup then realized that this was a dragon's nest.

It probably wasn't the best idea to suck in a breath, as if he were about to release a bout of explosion-inducing flames.

The feral dragon had stopped snarling, Hiccup realized. Its pupils were still slitted, and its eyes were narrowed so much that it almost looked like it was squinting. Hiccup's breathing came out rough and ragged, and he felt the skin beneath his scales bleed at his chest.

"What are you doing here?" the dragon spat, its saliva showering over Hiccup's face.

The shock of hearing the dragon speak clearly decipherable words struck through him. Hiccup was frozen in place.

"What- are- you- doing- here!?" the dragon slowly ran its claws down Hiccup's chest. The former human knew that they were just light cuts, but he squealed anyways.

"Shut up," the dragon, voice female, hissed. "You'll wake up the whole nest. Foul rabbit dung..." she growled at him, deeper than before, if that was even possible. "I will tear you to shreds, you blood traitor to the gods. I will tear out your neck, you filthy seaweed scum. I will claw out your heart and serve it on a silver platter to my people. I will... hey, you're a sky dragon."

The anonymous dragon recoiled, staring at him with wide golden eyes. "Uck. Your eyes are green like gods-forsaken _emeralds_, and that's what I saw right away, so I thought that you were a sea dragon. You should know not to wander around, especially with those green eyes of yours. They make you look like those- those- _serpent_ scumbags of ocean dragons." She took a few steps back, with a sudden hiss that made Hiccup flinch again, who was at a loss for words. "What are you, a mental defect? What's your name? I know all the dragons of this clan- where did you come from? You're definitely not from here."

Hiccup opened and closed his mouth, searching for words that he could speak legibly. His tongue seemed to be too swollen to allow himself to speak. Sprawled against the ground, he only managed to muster out, "Hiccup."

"Hiccup? What, do you have hiccups?" she waved her tail rigorously in annoyance. "Be serious."

"H-Hiccup," he choked out, "I am Hic-cup."

"What kind of name is _that_?" the she-dragon snorted. "Who is that, by your side? And where do you come from?" She stomped over to Astrid and sniffed Hiccup's dragon-bodied companion. "Ew. She's all nasty-smelling. And she's too warm. I think she's sick."

Hiccup perked up his head, causing the unknown dragon to flinch and bare her teeth silently. "She's hurt?" he questioned, looking at the other dragon with widened, fearful eyes. The dragon stared at him for a moment, with a mean but slightly thoughtful expression.

Then, "Xeral!"

A hushed voice called from a nearby medium-sized cave. Out came a she-dragon that looked centuries old. Her wings were matted, tore slightly in several places. Wrinkles could be seen all over her form, and it seemed strange that Hiccup could even see that she was female at all.

"Xeral, shoo! And you boy, take your friend and follow me," she whispered. Xeral, apparently the first, younger she-dragon, opened her eyes wide. Spitting out a few choice swear words that Hiccup actually knew of, she bounded away. The more

Hiccup loaded Astrid over his back and trailed after the female's tail, slipping into the darkness of a cave.

* * *

Hiccup stumbled into the cave, tail whisking away a few ferns blocking the entrance unintentionally.

"Not too hard," the she-dragon's weary voice called as Hiccup stumbled inside, "you'll knock them down, and you'll never hear the end of it from me. Call me Friar."

The she-dragon called Friar stared at Hiccup. "What are you, I wonder? You have the traits of both sky and sea dragons, strange. Nevertheless, your friend seems injured, so come inside."

Hiccup warily followed Friar deeper into the cave, getting nervously edgy by being in another dark space, in which he had almost no idea of where he was going. Astrid let out a muffled moan on his back.

Finally, the two dragons stopped, and Hiccup felt pretty subconscious. The old dragon motioned Hiccup to set Astrid on a bed of moss.

"You can trust me," Friar nodded, her ancient age showing by her skin's wrinkles, her ebony scales dull, some of them missing.

Hiccup tilted his head. The elder dragon stared with the calmest gray eyes. These dragons sure did have the strangest eyes.

He finally decided to trust the old dragon (for, what else could he do- try and run away?). He reluctantly slid Astrid off his back, letting her slide into the bed. She was instantly settling herself in, taking in sharp breaths and freezing a couple times. Hiccup watched her with a pained expression.

"She your mate?" Friar mumbled, staggering away and coming back with what appeared to be a bunch of leaves.

"M-mate?" Hiccup stuttered, feeling his body turn unnaturally hot.

"I figured, you seemed a bit too young anyways, though with _that_ expression..." Friar chuckled. "She your girlfriend?"

"N-no, she's just a friend," he stammered again, turning even more of a darker beet red behind his scales.

"I _see_," the elder dragon laughed, as if not fully believing him. "You're a human, aren't you? Eat these," she instructed, pushing the leaves she had brought toward Hiccup as he stared at her in shock.

"H-how-"

"I'm not exactly the most normal dragon in this nest. Now, eat," the small and frail female snickered, walking stiffly away.

Hiccup picked up the leaves and hesitantly stuffed them into his mouth. The leaves were dry, and he choked as he tried to swallow them, spitting them out with their extremely bitter taste.

"It's either eat or sleep," Frair reasoned, walking up to him with a fish in hand. It was raw, but Hiccup was hungry enough to eat it like that. Surprisingly, it actually tasted very good.

"You said that out loud," Frair commented. "It tastes good because you have different taste buds now. Even I've never heard of a dragon who didn't like fish." She felt over Astrid quickly. Laying down, it appeared that the older dragon was picking out stones from underneath Astrid's scales. Hiccup stared as she did this. Here was the girl that could swing a battle axe like a butter knife, hurl heavy items a good amount of yards away (including himself), and could run faster than anyone Hiccup ever met- lying right in front of him, more vulnerable than he had seen any Viking (but himself) be...

Then again, they weren't exactly _humans_ right now. They didn't exactly know how to fully use and control their new bodies. How many times would he have to remind himself that he- was- a- dragon, before he got used to that fact? How many days could, would, _should_ he be stuck as a dragon? Months? _Years_?

Forever?

Hiccup sat down and crooned. Friar stopped at looked up at him, but she probably had it mistaken as just genuine worry for his friend, for she then stood and stumbled away. She returned with a bowl of water.

Hiccup didn't even ask where she had gotten an actual _bowl_. He basically dove into the drink, lapping it up greedily. When he had quenched his thirst, he lay down next to the bowl, watching as Friar picked out stones from Astrid's scales again. She stopped for a moment.

"You'll bve fallin' asleep svoon, becvause there was medicine in tvhat drink, bvut don't worry. Your friend has a slvight fever as wvell as a bruised rib, thvat and svome tail injuries, bvut otherwise, she'll bve completely fine," she muttered past a particularly large stone, then continued caring for Astrid.

Sure enough, Hiccup felt the familiar drowsiness of sleep, though it came along with a feeling of cold. He dragged himself so he was beside Astrid, who was very warm, whether from her fever or not. Friar didn't seem to mind, and instead moved away from him to continue picking stones elsewhere...

Hiccup fell asleep to the sound of Astrid's breathing.

* * *

**Xeral is a side character and will probably not make many or even any more appearances after this.**

**You will find out why Friar knows that Hiccup and Astrid are human. She's not a super-powered dragon that jumps into battles and saves the day.**

**...sorry, I'm extremely paranoid when it comes to making OCs that can be interpreted as Mary Sues or Gary Stus. ESPECIALLY females, _god_, everyone thinks that female OCs are Mary Sues these days... I'm sorry, /end rant  
**

**Hiccup and Astrid- I want **_**them**_** to be the main characters here**.


	5. Dragon Training

**HAI THAR. I'm a bit loony at the moment, and I have a migraine, so be forewarned. Yay! I've taken such a looong time, dontcha think? Tell me if I made any mistakes on here; because of my migraine, I only kind of edited this, so you might see some mistakes. Toodles!**

**...yes, I'm a proud geek.**

* * *

Light filtered through the unsettled ferns blocking the cave entrance. Only tiny beams of light intruded past the ferns, little trickles of light that could remind one of honey. One of them, however, landed directly on Hiccup's eye.

The boy groaned and moved his head. His neck felt stiffer than ever, his legs feeling unnatural and back itching like mad. What had happened last night?

Then he remembered that he was a dragon, in a dragon's cave, in a dragon's nest. This realization deluged Hiccup for a moment; he opened his mouth and let out a choked, strangled sound.

"Awake?" a voice snickered from the darkness. Hiccup realized that his head was perked up, causing his neck to ache. He quickly closed his mouth and placed his head back on the ground, looking up feebly.

There came Friar, the old dragon from the previous night. In the scarce light, Hiccup realized that her scales were duller than his own, more like a dusty gray than his and Astrid's ebony bodies...

He quickly turned his head to the right, then wished he had done so slower when his neck protested. There was Astrid, breathing normally and laying uncomfortably close.

Hiccup abruptly tried to stand, but since he wasn't used to being a four-legged creature, he instantly slipped and fell back down, legs spread out in awkward positions.

Friar snickered at him, and he flushed behind his scales. She held out a thumbed claw, and Hiccup stared at it for a moment before reaching for it. Somehow, he got to his feet, tail stiff behind him and wings unfeeling, just like his first day as a dragon.

"Lotsa stress," Friar said sympathetically. "Can you walk around?"

Hiccup tilted his head and began to walk around the cave. Feeling self-conscious of the elderly dragon watching him intently, he tried to lead his mind to other things. This cave was pretty big, and as more light began to enter the cave, he found that peculiar plants and liquids were placed neatly along shelves and hedges that looked creepily man-made.

"Can you run?" Friar asked intently from the middle of the cave, sitting by the sleeping Astrid. Hiccup snapped out of his thoughts and broke into a loping run. Then he realized that he hadn't ran since he had lost his leg, and the other, more recent times where he ran, weren't really paid attention to. So, even though he was just bounding like Toothless did at the moment, it still felt good to be running again. He tripped quite a few times, but got up and continued running.

He turned, only to slam into the cave wall.

Hiccup was panting by the time Friar called him to her. He let his tail drag across the floor, narrowly avoiding a few stray jars with it.

Friar stood at the same time that Hiccup sat, and she began to circle him. The boy fidgeted uncomfortably, letting his head sag. Friar suddenly jabbed at his tail, and he yelped, jumping away at what seemed to be several feet.

"Don't tip over the jugs," she growled huskily, "they contain poisons. And they wonder why I don't let kids in here?" she questioned herself, rolling her eyes.

Hiccup realized that his tail was trashing everywhere, hitting the wall hard and sending pain shooting up his spine. He quickly regained himself and sat, tail twitching slightly.

"Now sit still so I can loosen you up," Friar snorted. She paused. "I'm not a pedophile."

Several sudden jabs later, as well as the whacking of body parts against cave walls, Hiccup had control over most of the parts of his body. He was pleased to see that he could spread his wings, wave his tail and stretch his neck out fully without (much) pain.

"Run again, now," Friar instructed after she finished jabbing at him. Hiccup guessed that they had been at all of this for about an hour, and he frowned in annoyance, bounding across the room and back.

"Better," Friar grunted dully. Then something sparked in her eyes and she stepped forward a bit. "But don't try to straighten your legs so much when you stretch them out as you leap off the ground. Think about how you run. Do you know what jump roping is? Huh, that's surprising, it sounded like a pretty sissy thing for Vikings."

Hiccup did not question how she knew he was a Viking, nor did he grumble about her showing attitude- at least, not out loud.

"Anyways, try to think of that, only while you jump, you're running forward. Only... eh, nevermind. When dragons run, they usually bound instead- you did a good job on observing that and putting that to your advantage. But, with four legs, you have to remember that when you're hitting the ground, your front legs go in between your hind legs- yeah, like that- and then you push on your hind legs, but not on your front. Got it?"

Hiccup shook his head a little, hesitant, then tried to follow her instruction. He found his hind legs pressing against the ground, felt himself rising in the air, moving forward-

Then he fell flat on his face.

However, Friar looked pleased. "Fast learner, but I guess that's because you've already been hanging around dragons, huh? You seem more open-minded, you know. The folk around here are too stubborn to follow my instructions, sometimes, so they're just as bad as most of you Vikings," she complemented. "Although our leader is kinder than most. Anyways, you lost your balance as you hit the ground again. Once you get in the habit of keeping balance every time you land, it'll become natural to you. Then you'll be able to run like any other dragon.

"I can understand that this can be even stranger than usual, due to your recently missing limb." She motioned to his left hind leg, which twitched in response. "But you'll have to learn fast, and right now- like I said- you're doing pretty good."

Hiccup nodded. There were a few more moments of silence, before Hiccup questioned loudly, "What now?"

Friar's face twisted into some grimace of a smile. "I'm gonna introduce you to a certain someone. Your friend will be fine here alone. They're probably all awake by now. Your name's Hiccup, right? I reckon you didn't lie to Xeral."

Sure enough, there was plenty of noise outside; it was evident that the dragons were talkative, discussing so many things, that most sounded like inconsistent words. Hiccup nodded slowly in confirmation.

Before Friar pushed him out of the cave with her, Hiccup had time to ask one more thing: "How do you know so much about me and Astrid?"

Friar smiled. "The Keeper." She shoved him out of the cave.

* * *

Hiccup gaped at the sight before him. There were dragons- tens of hundreds of dragons- swarming over the nest, mostly by sky, but the ones by ground still clogging up most of the ground's space. Hiccup vaguely wondered how the grass survived all of this. He was threatened to be overwhelmed by the sheer sight.

Friar clamped his jaw closed with her claw, nearly making him bite his tongue. He shook himself, not daring to protest out loud when she began to scamper out into the crowd.

Hiccup tried his best to shove through the masses. Apparently, he was weird-looking, or maybe perhaps just acting weird, because he was earning strange looks from all directions. He took note on how much expression they could manage.

He bumped into Friar as she abruptly stopped. Not looking back, she slowly began to walk into a gigantic cave. Hiccup paced after her, feeling a sense of being swallowed by the darkness. His thoughts drifted to the sickened Astrid. He wondered how she would react once she woke up...

His attention turned to Friar as she stopped again, then sat. Hiccup copied her, thankfully not running into her, for another dragon came from the shadows. She motioned for him to sit behind her, and he hastily obeyed.

"Who is this?" the new dragon growled, voice echoing off the walls. Hiccup bowed his head out of habit and looked up at him feebly, out of habit when he was back at Berk, and before he had met Toothless.

Friar gazed at the bigger, dangerously well-built dragon piercingly. "His name is Hiccup. He woke up on the island with no recollection of any other parts of his past with a female, who he only remembered as his friend. Then he and his friend came to harm, found the tunnels, and ended up here, where Xeral, our fellow newer trainee, jumped him. The female is unconscious and hasn't woken up yet."

Hiccup was silent, not trying to deny her words, especially the part of him not having recollection of his memories. The bigger dragon looked at Hiccup with a kind of interested glare.

"Hiccup?" he asked with a snicker.

Hiccup's tail twitched irritably.

"Fine, fine." He stood up abruptly, and began to circle the former human. At one point, the dragon shoved his face into Hiccup's flank, who instantly flinched and found himself many feet away.

"Nice reflexes," the bigger dragon complimented with a snort. "What can you do?"

It took a moment for Hiccup to realize that the sky blue-eyed dragon was asking him. The more powerful looking dragon seemed patient enough, however, which Hiccup was thankful for.

"I-I," he stared with a stutter. Both of the dragons in the cave eyed him wide, patient eyes. Blue and gray, blue and gray, blue and gray.

"I-I can... walk," he spluttered. He felt a blush rising up to his neck at his stupidity. The older male dragon simply nodded, almost gravely.

"I-I can... run. I can't fly, but I can do this," he murmured. Careful to aim for the smooth stone ground right in front of him, he spat a little ball of red fire. It melted away after a few seconds.

The older dragon looked at him, amused. "We're sky dragons, sonny, we'll teach you. As for fire, that's a good start," he appraised. "I never really liked learning how to breathe fire, ya know..." He craned his head and reared up, standing on two legs. Sucking in a deep breath, a large stream of red-golden fire flew over flew over Hiccup's head. The boy yelped and ducked, covering his head.

He opened an eye, then, feeling quite humiliated, Hiccup drew himself back to a sitting position. Wisps of smoke still hung from the dragon that just breathed fire, and both of the older dragons looked amused.

"Sol, call me Sol," the male dragon smiled.

"His full name is Solumdure," Friar snorted. Sol rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Anyways, kid, what else can you do?" Sol asked easily.

Hiccup came to his feet, then swiped at the air. Embarrassed, he sat back down again. "Not much else," he said quietly.

Sol grunted his approval with a nod. "Ah, you'll do. Mind bringing him to the training ring and teaching him some stuff, Friar? He can try some flying tomorrow." He paused. "Don't complain about your 'old bones' aching, I know that you're more than perfectly capable."

Friar grunted, looking at Hiccup. "Come on, Hiccer, let's go."

* * *

"Who was that?" Hiccup said quietly.

"Sol? The sky dragon's leader," Frair answered absentmindedly, leading him forward.

Hiccup almost choked.

After a quarter of an hour, they finally came to a large valley, surrounded by the hills. Friar glided to the bottom, then looked up expectantly at Hiccup.

Hiccup took a hesitant step forward- on a loose rock. He promptly slipped and rolled down to the bottom. Thankfully, it was one of the shorter hills, but he still groaned as Friar snickered.

"Here, here. You see, this clearing is one of the few parts of our gigantic island that isn't covered in forest. It's just hills and valleys," Friar explained. "Usually, trainees train alone, in their own valley, since there's so many. Let's start with fire."

She lead him to a bare spot in the smaller valley, only ground beneath him.

"Suck in air," she instructed. "Imagine flames pouring out from your mouth. Our species breathes fire by the two S's. Spitting or streaming. Streaming is actually easier, but spitting can make more dangerous fire than streaming. So, try streaming, and we'll try spitting next. Anyways, make sure your breath is steady, and prepare it to be long. The stream of fire will only last as long as your breath. Make sure that your neck is not bent or uncomfortable."

Hiccup turned away from her, focusing on a bare spot in front of him. He felt the place where fire was supposed to be made burn, suddenly. He felt pressure on his throat, and opened his mouth hesitantly, choking on a stream of fire that was only half blown out. He couldn't breathe... he fell to the ground, clawing at his throat... sparks and small flames charred the ground...

Then Friar turned him over onto his back and pounced on him, full-on.

The fire that was burning his throat alive flew out and into the grass. He gasped for breath as Friar leaped off of him, stamping out the fire that had started to catch on the nearby grass.

"Nice try," she bellowed, "but when you breathe fire, you have to mean it. You can't stall up- you'll choke, just like you did now. Don't be disappointed, though, because I've seen countless trainees do the same thing. Try again."

Hiccup staggered to his feet, suddenly feeling exhilarated instead of fearful. He just breathed fire! He messed up, but he just breathed fire! He sucked in a breath, then let out a stream of fire. He let it out far too forcefully for his experience, however, and he choked again, making Friar go through the same process as before.

She made no comment as he sucked in another breath and tried again.

* * *

Several hours later, with many varieties of training, and a former-human dragon's heavy panting, Hiccup slumped into a bed of leaves next to the still-sleeping Astrid. Night had fallen, lunch and supper had been eaten, he had learned how to almost fully use his legs, as well as how to breathe a few weak but extended streams of fire, and he had managed to glide for a few seconds in the air. The tribe leader- Sol, was it?- had said that he was supposed to fly tomorrow. If _gliding_ was that hard, he couldn't imagine the pressure of actually _flying_. Nonetheless, he was excited.

Although tired, he wasn't that drowsy. He shifted a bit, facing Astrid. She breathed slowly, but their was an air of strength around her. Frair had told Hiccup that she would be waking soon.

Quiet thoughts drifted around his skull. Where was Toothless now? He knew that Toothless could fend for himself, but he still worried quite a lot, like any good friend. If he was with Toothless right now, would he be able to speak with the Night Fury?

He thought about the place he called home. Berk- was his father looking for him back at Berk? Had they sent a search party for him, even set out boats and dragon riders?

Then his mind went to what Friar told him earlier- the elderly dragon was sleeping on the other end of the cave. Who was the Keeper? What else did this Keeper know?

Then... back at the cave. Were his and Astrid's bodies still there? Had the image of turning into a dragon just had been an illusion? Something gave him this idea, and something convinced him that it might be true.

He continued staring at Astrid, then curled his tail over hers, as well as putting a wing over her body, and, praying that she wouldn't wake in the morning and kill him for these gestures, he fell asleep.


	6. A Toddler's Comfort

**HAI GUYS, I'M GIVING UP**

**...just kidding.**

**Astrid wakes up~**

**But I'm going to refrain from saying what's happening in Berk... and what's happening to Toothless... for the time being.**

**

* * *

**

Astrid had always risen with the sun.

From the moment that she opened her eyes, she could tell that she was in a cave. The musky scent, the dense atmosphere, the smooth stone ground, and the darkness of it all that only let her see distinct shapes- it was all obvious. However, she had no idea what was laid over her body.

She realized that it was a wing, by its leathery feel.

Cradled next to her was the dragon-Hiccup; she finally was able to recognize him by certain key features. She snorted when she found that it was his wing that was over hers, and that he had laid his tail over her own, but she didn't have the heart to wake up the sleeping boy.

She slowly wriggled out of his weak grasp, looking around. Sniffing and trying not to sneeze at the dust particles she was inhaling, she spotted a figure in a corner of the cave. Suspicious and a bit scared, she began to sneak up on it-

-and promptly fell over.

The figure's head snapped up. It was now easily identified as a dragon, for Astrid's eyesight was beginning to adjust to the dark. It had grayish eyes, boring into the Viking before snorting.

"I'm Friar, you're Astrid, and you're friend's Hiccup- just clarifying that I know you before you try to kill me," the dragon said, voice female. Astrid struggled to her feet, teeth bared involuntarily in a snarl. She felt herself arching her back aggressively, although her whole body ached with stiffness. How did this 'Friar' know who she was?

"Calm down, I'll tell you what happened." Astrid frowned, but felt herself relaxing, although her posture was still more than aggressive. Friar explained how she had been unconscious for a couple of days, and how Hiccup had trusted the elder dragon and told her of the canyon incident.

Finally, she offered to get rid of the stiffness in Astrid's body. The younger female felt her glare almost completely disappear at that- the stony feel of her unusual body was steadily reaching an unbearable point.

Friar began with circling the former human, then struck out at her tail. Quicker than Astrid could mentally process, Astrid had snapped her neck around painfully and shot a tiny bout of flames at the elder dragon's face. To her surprise, Friar looked quite amused, then shook her head to release her face of ashes.

"Dragons are mostly fireproof from the outside, remember?" Friar reminded her, after commenting that she was feisty. Several shots of fire and quickened jabs later, Astrid was stretching around and showing Friar what she could do, just as Hiccup had earlier.

Speaking of Hiccup, he slept the whole way through, for he was exhausted after the previous day's training. But the time came where Friar decided to wake him up.

First, she tried nudging the boy, then shoving him. After several attempts, she asked Astrid to jump on him, who stared.

"Are you insane?" she questioned, giving Friar a very strange look. The elder grinned and replied with a yes.

Astrid leaped into the air and landed square on Hiccup.

She quickly got off of him when he let out a sharp mixture of a gasp and a choke. After sputtering for a moment, he looked at Astrid, blinked, and rolled over to go back to sleep.

"Do you _want_ me to jump on you again?" Astrid half-teased, though anyone could tell that she was serious.

Hiccup got up.

"When did you wake up?" He asked before sneezing wearily in Friar's general direction, who snorted in repose.

"Uh, a couple hours ago..." She suddenly leaped to an offensive position as something in the room growled.

"Can we say 'hungry'?" Friar interjected with what Astrid could now tell was customary, humorous snort. "We don't have to check you in with the leader- come on, I'll teach you to hunt."

* * *

As the three began to trot into the bowels of the forest, Hiccup filled Astrid in on everything that had happened so far. Soon, Friar stopped abruptly, keeping a still posture, even when Hiccup and Astrid bumped into her rump.

Hiccup started, "What are you-"

The brown hide of a female elk flashed, and Friar snapped at Hiccup in scorn before bounding after the elk with experienced grace. Despite her old age, she was quick and agile, though apparently not the strongest. She tackled the elk, but although they were almost the same size, the ewe only barely staggered. Hiccup was too late to stop Astrid from streaking forward confidently and clutching onto the prey's hide as well. It let out many aggravated sounds, although it did not tip over, for the two dragons attacking it were far too light, as they were suited for flight, even with their weight combined.

Hiccup was still. He didn't know what to do- join the hunt that would probably fail without him, and watch the two females disappear with the elk, or leap in and risk being pounded by those heavy hooves.

Friar eyed Astrid, who was comfortable enough with fire that she was confidently beginning a shot. "Don't," Friar warned over the noises of the cow elk, "you'll burn the meat!"

This only made the elk thrash more.

Hiccup found himself rushing in on the elk. Although he was nimble and fast when he wanted to be, he was currently reluctant and slow. However, he found himself closing in on it anyways; it was slowed by Astrid and Friar's weight, and the loss of blood from their ferocious biting and clawing. He finally leaped on it, and it tipped over almost gracefully. All three jumped away from its flailing hooves, and Friar delivered a killing blow to its neck. Astrid and Friar cheered, and Friar even stood on her hind legs with hand-like claws waving in triumph, but Hiccup was just dazed.

"That was an extremely quick find, ya know," Friar commented, sitting down again and yawning as if nothing had happened, "it usually takes hours to find elk."

She wasted no more time, diving into the elk and tearing at the meat, cooking her mouthfuls with soft flames before gulping down.

Astrid had more survival skills than Hiccup, and although she was more than hesitant, she took a little bite after trying her best to breathe out some weak flames and cook it. She wouldn't need much training with cooking with her fire, for apparently the cooked meat was good when she enthusiastically ate some more. Hiccup, however, was disgusted. He had never eaten elk meat from a freshly killed corpse, especially as a human. But he was hungry, and after a few minutes, he shut his eyes as tight as possible and tried not to breathe in when he tore a chunk of meat, cooked it, and swallowed it.

This new body must have had different taste buds, because it tasted pretty good.

He still would have chosen cooked fish any day, though.

A few minutes later, all three dragons had fed. Astrid and Hiccup had eaten sloppily; they had blood from the meat on their mouths, which they tried to wipe off on the grass. Any watchers would have laughed at them, smothering their faces on the ground. After murmuring something to the elk's carcass like a prayer of thanks, she turned and saw the two former human's antics, and dropped on the ground laughing when Hiccup collided with a tree.

* * *

It was time for training.

Again, Hiccup found himself in the Valley of Hills, as Friar called it. Friar turned to him.

"Train Astrid."

Hiccup whipped his head around, nearly falling off his own two- er, four- unfamiliar feet. "Wha?"

"Try and train her to breathe fire, or at least what I told you about it. I'll watch and help if something goes on," she smirked, going off into the shade of a hill and laying down with her head laying on her arms. Astrid walked up to Hiccup, shocking him to the point where he almost fell over again.

"Where's that dragon?" she asked, looking around with flickering blue eyes.

"Uh, she's over there. She wants me to, uh, help you breathe fire," Hiccup said, trying not to stutter. It helped that Astrid was a dragon, but now they were mostly (or at least seemingly) alone, and it was still Astrid...

Astrid shook her head, letting out a fairly weak stream of fire into a bare spot of ground, so it wouldn't catch fire. "Nah, I'm good."

"Is that the best you can do?" Hiccup asked as innocently as possible. He received a glare, confirming his suspicions.

"H-here, just, um, think about the fire," Hiccup said lamely.

Astrid gave him a blank look, eyes half-lidded in a sarcastic lack of amusement. "Okay, I'm _thinking about the fire_, now what?"

Hiccup frowned. "Well..." He closed his eyes. "Friar told me... that there's two S's." He explained the qualities of spitting and streaming, finding that Astrid was listening intently.

"Make sure that your neck isn't uncomfortable in any way. The first time I tried breathing fire... never mind," he stopped himself, not wanting to lower his own status, if he even had one to begin with. "Make sure that you take in a deep breath... like that... because, you're going to be streaming, and the fire will only last as long as you breathe ou-"

Astrid was already huffing out flames, but she was breathing them far too harshly. She choked, falling on the ground with wide eyes and failed attempts at gasping in air.

Hiccup gave Friar a frenzied look, but she made no move to help, gazing at him expectantly, like warrior waiting for its leader to assign a mission to it.

Just like the elderly dragon had done to him, Hiccup turned Astrid on her back, but in her thrashing he kicked him in the gut, lying on her stomach. He tried again, but because of Astrid's wild moving, she kicked him away again. Hiccup looked back at Friar again, but although she was looking apprehensive, head raised worriedly, she still made no moves to get up.

Then Astrid stopped moving.

And breathing.

Hiccup let out a little sort of shriek. He could hear Friar rushing to them from behind him. He felt dizzy, but he tipped the girl's dragon body onto its unmoving back once again.

He would do this right.

Hopefully.

He stepped back, then pounced into the air. Some predatory instinct kicked in, and he found his wings snapping open with a satisfyingly huge wingspan. He flapped his wings, trying to gain height- it didn't work, but however, when he tucked his wings back in, he found himself zipping downwards at a pace that would hurt Astrid more than help her. He slowly opened his wings again, tilting his body a bit, and landed right on the dragon-Viking.

An immense amount of fire flew from Astrid's mouth, and she was coughing and choking and gasping for air, once again thrashing all over the ground. Hiccup bounded back a couple of times to avoid her rolling into him as she slowly regained herself.

Then she looked at him, back slowly arching, teeth and fangs bared and eyes once widened with fear slowly narrowing.

"You--" she snarled, advancing on Hiccup, making him sit down, his ears down to their lowest and eyes widened to the most. "You, you're too _scared_ to _do_ anything, aren't you?" she snapped. "I almost _died_ because of _you_." Whether she was genuinely angry at Hiccup, or maybe she was angry for another reason, she swiped clumsily at his face, only narrowly missing before the boy bounded away as fast as possible. Friar looked at the fuming Astrid, breathing heavily, then eyed the spot where Hiccup disappeared.

Years of experience told her to simply watch. Things like this solved themselves.

* * *

Maybe she did like him.

Astrid bounded away from the clearing, in the opposite direction of where Hiccup went, running and running until she was far away enough in her mind. She reached the top of a heightened hill, watching the blue skies lit by midday's sun. She was alarmed for a moment when six black shapes appeared, but they were just dragons playing among the cottony clouds.

She felt a familiar rage smoldering inside of her at the content of the dragons, and the fact that they looked like little, innocent children made it even worse.

Dragons. Dragons, they were what she had been raised to fight, what she had been forced to want to destroy. Astrid always had to prove to her father, and maybe even to herself, that she was excellent at _everything_. She had to _prove_ to him that she was better than the rest, just because _he_ wanted a son and because she was female. She was almost happy when he died...

And then, Hiccup.

That boy, the one with the ridiculous name, had been the one to crush everything she had known. He had been the one that proved that her hours of training were useless. He had been the one to prove that her torturing nightmares were meaningless.

And yet she _enjoyed _his company. And yet she was _guilty_ that he had just ran away like that because of her.

It was aggravating, so aggravating. Astrid bent her head, looking at the grass below her. She bared her fangs at it, as if it had committed an unforgivable crime, then resumed a blank, yet almost sorrowful expression. She curled her tail around her legs thoughtfully, sadly, and let her ears fall back, closing her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Astrid's head snapped up, eyes and pupils narrowed threateningly. Her glare faltered a bit when she saw one of the children dragons that were playing in the sky. Not even a trainee yet, the little one whined nearly inaudibly, looking up with the widest and most aggravatingly _adorable_ sky blue eyes.

"Uh... I-I can go if..." Those eyes were almost fearful now, but the boy dragon still held his ground, other than taking a hesitant step back.

He never finished his sentence. Astrid's gaze softened a bit, and she looked down at her feet. Hands. Claws. She might as well had called them hands, for they had five fingers, one of them on each an opposable thumb...

She only barely flinched when the toddler dragon snuck under her right wing, and snuggled against her side in silent comfort.

* * *

_Astrid looked with a horrified expression at the baby dragon, roughly held in her father's hands._

_"Do it," he commanded, dropping the Terrible Terror at her feet, blind and helpless._

_She knew what she was supposed to do. _

_Strangle it._

_She slowly picked it up, cradling it in her arms in a fashion that earned a glare from her father. She was supposed to choke it. Kill it. End its life forever. Because of her, this baby dragon would never open its eyes. It would never hear the gentle cooing of a mother, never feel the caressing of the wind that a kind father's wings would have made._

_A father that wasn't like her own._

_Astrid suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to end the creature's life, end it so it would never have the father that she didn't have. Many a time, she had wished that she was a boy. Many a time, she had wished that she was her father's son, instead of a measly daughter, so that maybe, just maybe, her dad would show her love. But... no. There was nothing that could change that._

_She looked at the baby dragon again. It chirped, opening its little mouth in a desperate need for food. It was so different from the girl that held it, and not just by species. It didn't command for life to bend and bow to it, like she tried. It only made a simple plea to hold onto life, taking on whatever was on its way, only asking for help and not commanding for it._

_Envy. Bitter envy._

_Astrid took the dragon and ran into the woods, following the sounds of a desperate dragonic pair, a mother and a father, not even caring or thinking about the ferocious scorning... and more... she would receive later on..._

Her father was killed by a dragon that night, and she vowed to kill every dragon she laid eyes on, even if she despised her father nonetheless. That is...

...until Hiccup, who had proved that dragons were just understood.

Until Hiccup, who had taught the Vikings how to forgive.

And yet, she still found herself trying to say that she was angry at Hiccup for causing her near-strangling, and although that was a very sensible reason for anyone to get angry, she really might of just been afraid that her fate would end like the baby Terror's would have... if she hadn't run away so many years ago, and faced her fears while doing so. If Hiccup had not gotten her breathing in time, and Friar hadn't come near enough to help, her life might have ended...

* * *

That night, Astrid slept next to Hiccup and took his tail in hers, although she wasn't as sure if she forgave him as much as the Vikings forgave the dragons for the deaths of their loved ones... and vice versa.

Earlier, she found out that the toddler's name was Tristan. She wondered what the baby Terrible Terror's name was, and if it was still holding on to life at this very moment, and if it remembered her and her act of bravery to save its life.

* * *

**...I didn't want to make a revelation like this, this quick... oh well.**


	7. First Flight

**Thanks for all the reviews, guys. ^^;**

**Wait-wait-wait... I haven't been answering questions at all. Saad.**

**I'll do it now.**

**aaameidas: Google translators can be evil. I should know... but, Toothless will be here soon. Ahaha. But I'm not saying when.**

**Narilyte: Again, Toothless'll be here soon... but he's been gone for a long while because it's a long way to swim from Berk to an isolated island so far away, let alone find the island. But he'll get lucky. The fun doesn't begin until Toothless enters the party.**

**That's all for now... please don't kill me if I didn't answer your question this time. ^^;**

**Again, thanks, everyone~**

* * *

Astrid slowly opened her eyes.

Where Hiccup had been the previous night, there was the stone cave ground, warm with his recent body heat. The girl realized that Friar was not there, either.

She stood up, stretching her limbs like a cat before poking her head past the ferns of the cave's entrance. Dragons were filing this way and that, paying no mind to her presence. It was late afternoon, to her surprise; she had always been an early riser.

Part of her wanted to sleep more, but the rest wanted to find Hiccup. Oh, and- what was her name again?- Friar. She remembered well enough where they probably were- the Valley of the Hills, was it?- hopefully. With weary legs, she attempted to fight against the crowd outside of the cave. At first, it was impossible, but then the dragons around her took the hint and walked around her, so it seemed like she was in an invisible, oval-shaped bubble.

She made way into the forest, walking deliberately. She was confident that she could find the valley... well, confident enough. It didn't mean that the sounds of hunting dragons in the otherwise ominously still forest didn't spook her.

The trees seemed to begin to fan out into a valley. Sure enough, Astrid found herself in a vast clearing full of large hills, some almost mountains. She sighed in relief at the strange terrain.

Her ears pricked involuntarily, head raising. She could easily hear the grunts of practicing trainees. Sounds that could be identified as flame being breathed rose in the air, and she could see the flickering of fire shooting in the sky with her newer eyes. She found herself grinning, relishing her new found senses.

Astrid swiveled her ears again at the sound of familiar voices as she started traveling among the hills.

"Don't strain your wings! You have to keep them extended, but you'll get too tired if you stretch them out too far. You might even sprain them."

"I'm trying, I'm trying!"

A smile quirked Astrid's face as she looked down at Hiccup and Friar. She trotted down the hill she was on, towards them.

* * *

Hiccup was desperately trying to stretch out his wings in the _absolute perfect_ form that Friar wanted, grumbling to himself in frustration. He waited for the old dragon to stop raving about his wings being too far spread out. They were already aching after only five minutes of flight practice, and he was praying for some kind of distraction, but he wasn't expecting to see Astrid sliding down a hill.

"Oh look," Friar grinned, "Astrid."

"Where were you?" Those were the first words that came out of her mouth.

"Our wittle Hiccup here didn't want to wake up Sleeping Beauty," Friar explained, "so instead of giving you a back massage with our feet, you know, to wake you up, we left you to get some more rest."

"For a century-old dragon, you act like a know-it-all five-year-old," Hiccup interjected, trying to hide his embarrassment (and utterly failing at it).

"Century-old?" Friar half-shrieked and half-squeaked. "Oh, come on, I'm not _that_ old."

Astrid simply rolled her eyes, causing a strange effect because of her current body. "I don't blame Hiccup, you look ancient."

Friar gave a somehow mocking look of distaste, and Hiccup looked at Astrid with surprise.

"Ah, don't look at me like that," Astrid snorted, giving him a rare grin before turning to Friar. "So, what are we doing here?"

"Trying to fly, or at least something like it," Hiccup responded. Astrid tapped his still-outstretched wing lightly, causing both of the wings to recoil back to his sides. She took the wing's spot, plopping down next to the boy and making him secretly blush.

"Well, you're the one who wanted to try flying, since we didn't get to it after... yesterday's predictament," Friar interrupted with an air of vagueness. "But if you still want to try..."

* * *

An hour later, Friar was still barking orders at Hiccup and Astrid, who were sweating on a hill.

"Wings out!"

Both teens moaned and spread out their aching wings.

"Position yourself!"

Both former-humans crouched down into identical postures, rumps up and eyes focused on the spot of the sky that they wanted to ascend into.

"Get ready to-"

"You know what? _Bye!_" Astrid snapped, impatience finally bringing her to the point where she couldn't stand being screeched at any longer. She leaped up into the air, wings beating with undivided strength as she brought herself into the sky.

She was flying.

Up and up and up, spiraling into the clouds, clouds she couldn't focus on because she was too busy focusing on flight. Friar was right- flying was harder than it looked, and Astrid wondered how those toddler dragons from earlier could do it.

"Whoooo hooooo!"

A black figure zipped to her side, and there was Hiccup, wings outstretched neatly as he gave her a gliding grin.

"What the heck! Didn't Friar-"

"Screw Friar, we're _flying_!" And at that moment, he gave a barrel roll away from her with such ease that Astrid could have sworn that he had always been a dragon, for all of his life.

Flying took a little more adjusting for Astrid. Trying to avoid the biggest clouds and being annoyed by the littler ones melting on her face didn't help her concentration. She wondered how Hiccup was doing it so easily. Maybe it was riding with Toothless that did it...

As if reading her thoughts, Hiccup flew back to her side, barely touching the tips of her wings with his own. "Relax! Friar is following us; if one of us falls, then she'll catch us, even if she's cursing our quote unquote 'wretched demonic souls'. You should hear her, haha..."

And he made it sound so flipping _simple_.

But then, Astrid realized, it was easier. She was just making it harder for herself, by making herself stiff and thinking about every little move she made. Soon, some kind of instinct that came with her new body took over. She only had to think about what she wanted to do, and where she wanted to be, and she would soon fulfill the image.

"Theeere you do," Hiccup partially teased, and Astrid simply batted his wing, causing him to falter and drop back and down a few feet before regaining himself and getting back to her side.

Friar suddenly burst from the clouds, startling Astrid and nearly causing her to stall in mid-wing beat. "Aaah. I should be scorning you, but you're doing a better job than most trainees, there. Only a sky dragon could fly like this so easily on their first try. A sea dragon would be on the ground in a bloody heap by now."

Hiccup stuck out his tongue. "That's a nice image."

"What's the deal with all of this 'sea and water dragon' and 'sky and air dragon' stuff, anyways?" Astrid suddenly thought aloud. She and Hiccup knew virtually nothing about this island and its inhabitants, she realized suddenly.

Friar went a little stiff, then fell into line beside Astrid, causing her to be in the middle of the elder and her recently proclaimed friend. "It's a long story. You... well, you see... a long time ago, humans... no offense, though... they came when the seas and the skies had no differences- they were one tribe. In fact, there was no such thing as separate species- we're not even separate species now. We just act like it.

"Anyways... they wanted to protect their land from the humans, so they split up. What are the sky dragons today separated into the main island, while the sea dragons took to the waters and protected the smaller islands around this place. But, when the humans went away, the dragons refused to come together again. The humans and dragons were at war for a long time, you see... and the two groups of dragons were apart for long enough so that they were doing selective breeding, and the sky and sea dragons had gained different traits.

"Quarrels happened, arguments both within the tribes and fights the of both of the tribes against each other. Some were big, and some were small, but all of them pulled us apart even more. To put it short, we're having war because of something that happened generations ago, and the tribes are too stubborn to sort it all out. It really sucks, if you want me to summarize."

The three were silent. Then: "I'm going to leave you alone now. Try to figure out how to fly, if you're so confident. Flying rules, falling stinks, they say, eh?" Friar smiled mischievously, disappearing into the clouds with experienced speed.

Bewildered, Astrid and Hiccup stared at the spot where she seemingly disappated. Then Hiccup grinned sheepishly. "So... I guess it's just you and me now, huh?"

Astrid smiled one of those smiles that only Hiccup could yank out of her. "Not for long."

The two dragons shot forward, Hiccup taking the lead for a few moments before he slowed and fell back in line with Astrid, wings beating madly. His tongue lolled out of his mouth, and as Astrid shot him a disgusted look, he laughed out the words "No shame!" before dragging it back in his mouth, tongue going against the wills of the wind.

Astrid then dove down, gaining an immense amount of speed as she zoomed downwards vertically. Then she slowly shifted her weight, a bit experimentally, so that she was zooming ahead horizontally. Apparently, her scales were wind resistant, for even though she was going as fast as a Night Fury, it wasn't bothering her at all, except for her eyes. As soon as she thought of that, however, she felt something similar to an extra pair of eyelids, only clear, slide over her eyes.

She had no time to be weirded out, however. She had flown too close to the ground for comfort, and was about to head into a tall-treed forest. Which meant, instant crash. But if she flapped her wings, a part of her whispered, she would be thrown back by the wind's resistance...

Hiccup's warnings barely reached her ears from afar.

A splitting sensation suddenly flew over her body, as if something was rising from it, although it didn't hurt.

_"Can you hear me?"_

Astrid flinched internally.

_"Ah, good, good. I'm here to assist you."_

_Who are you?_ Astrid asked the voice accusingly, distracted by the oncoming forest. Instantly, she felt ridiculous. Astrid, Viking of Vikings, talking to a voice in her head?

_"I feel insulted by that! I can hear your thoughts, you know! Just kidding. I'll tell you who I am later- you might want to focus on the situation that you have at the moment."_

The voice was female, sounding particularly amused. Astrid fumed inside. _I don't need your help. Now, tell me who you are!_

_"Well, you let me help you and I tell you later, or I'll leave you to crash and let your innards rot on a rock somewhere in the result."_

_Fine._

_"Okay. If you try gaining altitude, you'll slow down, unless you have a few tricks up your sleeves. And, as you've learned, if you head down, you'll go faster."_

_Yeah, I kind of figured that out,_ Astrid thought irritatedly.

_"But there's a way to keep speed while rising. And I can tell that you want to keep your speed. It's fun, is it not?"_

_I guess.._. Astrid offered.

_"Well, that's good, that you're having fun. Honestly. Now, you'll need to memorize what I say here, because it'll be useful for later if someone's trying to chase you by the air. It'll work with most dragons. Although, it's a particularly advanced skill, though, one used typically by sky dragons, so you'll have to listen closely."_

_I'm up to it,_ Astrid replied, gradually becoming more cooperative with the voice in her head.

_"Rise just enough so that you're just over the trees here- but just by a few inches. I'm trusting that you know what inches are."_

Astrid twitched her wings downward, rising by a couple feet at that minuscule movement.

It was exhilarating.

_"That's good. Now, when you get to the trees here, you'll have to tuck in your wings. I may seem mad, but hear me out. You'll still be suspended in the air for a few seconds. Use that time to pick a tree, and aim for landing on it. Or do that before you tuck in your wings- your choice. As soon as you get it, don't hold on to it- you might dislocate your legs, if you're going fast enough. You'll have that split second to thrust yourself into the air with all your might. If you mess up, try again. You can also just keep on jumping from tree to tree until you want to fly up."_

Astrid had no time to protest, as she was nearly to the trees. She readied herself, trying not to go stiff with hidden fear. She looked over the forest swiftly, selecting a tree and stretching out her front limb's talons by a fraction of an inch. A yelp escaped her; that little movement threw her off track, and she flapped her wings once, causing her to shoot up a bunch of feet. However, her wings snapped to her sides without her permission, and she was doing somersaults in the sky.

Hiccup cried out from somewhere above her.

_"Come on! Get yourself together, woman!"_

Astrid faltered, still rolling forward on a nonexistent surface before attempting to straighten herself out. She had no time; she was dropping towards the forest again, and fast. But she managed to uncoil herself before crashing, snapping her limbs out and catching on a tree. She used the built-up momentum to throw herself forward again, latching onto another tree momentarily. Her legs were unfamiliar to her; if she was doing this as human, it would be much easier, but she wasn't used to four legs. She jumped onto another tree after nearly faltering.

Soon she was leaping from tree to tree to tree, and she imagined herself as a sort of squirrel, leaping from branch to branch to climb up a tree, only she was going horizontally. To her disdain, she found that the trees were about to lead into a large, open clearing. She'd have to fly soon or crash into the clearing, but she wasn't sure if she was up for it. She wondered if she should just stop herself right now...

Wait... her, Astrid? Not up to something?

Ahaha, never mind.

Concentrating harder on this, harder than so many other things she had done more easily before, she planned a route of trees to jump on next, calculating inside of her head. Tree one, tree two, tree three, and before she knew it, she was thrusting herself up into the air, and hurling into the sky. The voice in her head sighed in heavy relief as she remained suspended in the sky, at a slow pace; Astrid had learned her lesson not to fly so fast- at the moment.

"How did you _do_ that?"

She snapped her head around to meet two green eyes, open wide in awe.

"There's a voice in my head," she stated bluntly before she could stop herself.

_"Smoooth,"_ the subject of her statement snorted.

Hiccup simply stared at her confusedly, eyes even wider than before (if that was possible), before her voice shouted, _"Cliff!"_

_

* * *

_

Unfortunately, not everyone can have a voice in their head that warns them of imminent death.

Astrid, directed by the voice that was apparently in her head, suddenly shot upward abruptly with experience that she didn't truly have. The clumsier Hiccup turned his head forward dumbly, and face met rock.

The sky danced around him with black tickling his vision. Hiccup felt himself sliding, then falling toward the ground. He had just hit the underside of a cliff.

Again, unfortunately, both the top and the bottom of the cliff were too far away from his current spot for any kind of comforts.

Death either way. Wonderful.

_"Aa-ah, I'm late! Sorry, kid!"_

Late?

What in Odin?

_"Astrid really does have a voice in her head, kiddo, by the way. Yeah... well, um, you might want to steady yourself right now."_

Hiccup stared at his black-dotted world, unresponsive, for he was in too much shock at the moment.

_"Uh... you alive?"_

Something in the back of Hiccup's mind poked him. Hard. He hissed, feeling like someone had just poked his own brain.

_"Whoops, sorry, forgot how gentle these things need to be handled. You know what they say- with power comes an itsy bitsy living space. Ahaha. Genie... anyways, kid, I can't help you out there until you want to be helped, you know."_

Hiccup finally obeyed the voice, still silently bewildered out of his wits.

_"Yeah... good, good. Now, before you go splat on the ground, use momentum. Which means, face the ground, spread out your wings, and slowly angle yourself 'till you're vertical. Just like Astrid. I see why you've got the hots for her..."_

Hiccup, now regaining himself because of the voice's statement, blushed madly. The voice chuckled, waiting for the former human to act. He twisted a bit, squirming in discomfort, before flipping himself downward.

The ground was dangerously close. Hiccup was reminded of falling into the canyon, a couple days earlier.

He quickly angled himself sideways, but it only made his fall stall a little. Panicking, he faced the ground again, waiting for the certain impact.

_"__Slowly, I said!_ _Don't kids listen anymore these days? Thor almighty..."_

Hiccup blinked _slowly_, turning _slowly_ toward away from the, well, _quickly_ approaching ground. He grinned, realizing that he actually was flying in a leveled fashion.

_"I guess you can take it from here."_

Hiccup nodded without meaning to, and he flapped his wings vigorously, gaining altitude by feet per each wing beat.

* * *

"I have a voice, too."

It was the first thing Hiccup had said when he landed next to Astrid in a clearing, almost flawlessly.

"Oh, great. Little voices in our head, reading our minds. What's next, us growing horns?" Astrid joked.

_"Well, dragons typically do have horns, but not this species..."_ Astrid snorted at her voice.

"There's _another_ one?" Hiccup asked, doing a 360 as if the speaker was behind him.

"You heard her?" Astrid questioned, leaping to her feet.

_"You should hear Hiccup's too, any second now..."_

_"I was taking an effing nap!"_ This voice was male, sounding like an irritated child.

"Okay, what in Hel is going on here?" Astrid interrupted aloud.

_"If you haven't figured it out..." the female voice started, "...then I'll tell you. You see, we're the inhabitants of your bodies here. We were banished from this island from the tribes, a looong time ago, but we went together. We came across that cave you went to, and just like you, we were lured there by the cave's force. We were trapped inside with- will you shut up!"_

The male voice stopped humming a mockingly pitiful tune.

_"-anyways, we were trapped. Then you came along and the- shut up!- well, he tried turning you into dragons, but he was too weak from keeping Astrid inside the cave to do that. So he convinced us to let you use our bodies. It was a big bargain, but we were more bored than bored there. Your bodies are back with him, safe and waiting for you to fulfill the prophecy. It was a nice chance to get some fresh air, even though you'd be in control of our bodies, so we agreed."_

"What's the prophecy?" Astrid's question was more like a commanding statement.

Astrid's voice cleared her throat.

_"Turbulent waves and furious skies,_

_Fighting will lead you all to your demise._

_Sea against air, blue versus green,_

_Battles and battles 'till black scales lose sheen._

_Both here in the present, and once here from the past,_

_They'll finally rise up for the island, at last._

_Two little children, two warring tribes,_

_The two are the change, the unwanted vibes._

_The green and the blue, the girl and the boy,_

_By humans of good, humans that destroy._

_And by deaths of those who were only once known,_

_More of this prophecy will finally be shown."_

_"In other words,"_ the male voice murmured, _"we don't know the rest of the prophecy. Throughout the years, the prophecy has changed considerably, actually. It used to be much different, so don't be surprised if it suddenly changes due to any events that happen..."_

All were silent for a moment.

_"Hey... you know, you used to snore every night after we were away from the island. I hope you don't do that with Hiccup,"_ the female voice said suddenly.

_"I do not snore!"_

_"Yes you do!"_

_"No I don't!"_

_"Yes!"_

_"No!"_

_"Yes!"_

_"No!"_

_"No!"_

_"Yes!"_

_"HA!"_

Astrid and Hiccup moaned loudly.

* * *

**B-but this chapter is a couple thousand words longer than my other chapters! I don't waaaant to edit it... uuurgh.**

**By the way... don't assume anything. I have things up my sleeve for this story. Don't be surprised when you see some twists here.**

**I'm a little crazy right now- I hope that explains the absurd ending. D:**

**Review? Please? ^^;**


	8. One Without Tooth

**I'm too lazy to write a chapter of Empathy or anything else but this, so please don't kill me. -_- It's really late and I'm really tired. (Well, I was when I was writing these responses, but now it's two in the afternoon. :D So I'm happy. but it's really hot here. Ramble ramble.)**

**Also, I think I lied about Xeral not playing a big part... well, it won't be _colossal_, so don't worry.  
**

**ALSO. I've drawn a picture of some of the guys in this story... Toothless, Hiccup, Astrid, Friar, Tristan, and Xeral. You can look at my page for the picture's link, or get rid of all the spaces in this link:**

http :/ / snowthewolf . deviantart . com /art/ICC-Dragon-Line-166602524

**...truthfully, Paint is a good program, but I wish it had better quality.**

**You know, a picture tells a thousand words... this picture may clue you in on some secrets of the story. And I'm_ totally _not saying it to get you to look at it. -_-;;; But, it's true. It may help you figure out some things.  
**

**Narilyte: Well, I didn't really bother to make it clear... but it's said that the, erm, _thing_ that attempted to change their bodies... failed. So it did the alternative and borrowed the voices' bodies instead. I do hope that makes some sort of sense...**

**And about Toothless not scenting them... you're kind of right. It was pitch black with no lights in the cave, and it's implied that anyone in the chamber could see each other clearly, so it isn't exactly your average cave. There's also the fact that they didn't see the voices and their bodies in the cave, which will be explained.**

**And... what I wouldn't give to fly as well. ^^ Toothless... well, everyone can assume what's coming by the chapter title. C:**

**aaameidas: 20 minutes? D: I would have given up by then.**

**And yes, I was referring to the end of the chapter and that joke. Ehe...**

**Yep, it seems like every time someone tells a story by memory, it changes a little. **

**I was looking forward to writing that chapter, too. xD Now I can finally make them fly around more, instead of walking around. So... very... slowly... flying really opens up a lot of possibilities, you know? xD**

**Mooseluver8: So very klutzy. x3**

**Romantic-Flights: Waiiit... I didn't even notice that. o_O I forgot who Gothi is (so much for being an obsessed HTTYD fangirl). Which is quite sad. But, if she's the elder, than people can assume that. Friar's old. Pretty old. /ranting**

**To the rest: Thanks for your support, guys. ^^ Every word gives me a little more incentive to get these done quicker... although I was really slow with this chapter. D: At least it's a nice, juicy three and a half thousand words...**

**P.S. Have you ever read Percy Jackson and the Olympians? If so, you'll get the Martha and George joke.**

**P.P.S. As you were reading this, were you reminded of the Warriors series, at all?  
**

* * *

It was a bright morning the next day, and both teens woke up with wet noses and cloudy eyes, blinking sandman waste out of their eyes.

Hiccup and Astrid stretched, neither hearing their voices as they did yesterday. They had questioned Friar about the voices yesterday, before sleep, and she had given them the weirdest look a dragon could ever make.

Which means that she wasn't expecting that tidbit of information.

"Breakfast!" Friar sang from outside the medicine cave, a chunk of elk meat flying through the ferns blocking the entrance. Both dragons leaped back in surprise, as any dragon with good reflexes would have done. Friar only laughed as she saw their expressions of shock.

As Hiccup and Astrid fed slowly, they decided to question their voices.

"So, what's your... um... name?" Astrid said gradually. Hiccup immediately caught on to who she was asking, but Friar gave her a weird look.

"My voice," Astrid said uncertainly.

"Oooh, gotcha," Friar nodded, turning away and feeding hungrily on her chunk of elk.

_"Mmm? Ugh, woman, why'd you wake me up?" _Hiccup's voice complained.

_"Well, it's about time," _Astrid's voice snapped, _"I thought you'd never wake up."_

_"What do ya want?"_ the male voice moaned.

"Names," Astrid complied as Hiccup said at the same time, "You guys are worse than Ruff and Tuff."

_"Ruff and Tuff? Who're they?"_ Hiccup's voice slurred, almost as if he were a drunk.

"Nevermind that," Astrid's voice growled, "They want to know our names."

_"Geez, woman, are you PMS'ing or something? Because if you are-"_

"What are your flipping NAMES!" Astrid snapped, temper rising as she quickly started becoming impatient. Friar cast a strange look in her direction, making it obvious that Hiccup and Astrid were the only ones that could hear the voices.

There was silence for a moment, before the male voice uttered, _"Okay, if anyone's PMS'ing here, it's Astrid."_

Astrid's voice sighed loudly. _"Ingrid. My name's Ingrid, but I prefer Martha."_

_"They called me... uh, it was Aro, right? But call me George. George is good... and sleep is good... can I go back to sleep now?" _George sniffed a little bit.

_"No," _Martha growled.

"I hate to break up this _happy_ conversation," Hiccup frowned, suddenly butting in, "But would you mind us asking a few more... questions?"

_"Questions! It's all about the questions! You're a question man, aren't you? Always the questions. Need to ask questions to be smart! Questions, questions, questions! Soon, you'll be asking your mate here- Astrid, is it?- some specific que-"_

_"Shut up, George."_

_"Shut up, George,"_ George mimicked in a mock voice.

Martha sighed heavily. _"Sorry, but he's always difficult in the morning, if you wake him up too early."_

_"What can I say, babe? I mean, I'm a night owl."_

_"I wish, right now, _so very bad_, that I could just smack you right now..."_

"Shut _UP_!" Astrid screeched, looking about ready to bang her head against the wall. "I'd rather be struck down by the gods themselves than listen to your constant blabbering!"

_"Dude, Hiccup, why'd you pick _her _as a mate?" _George said obliviously.

"He's NOT my flipping MATE!" Astrid snarled.

There was a faint chuckle in the corner of the cave, and Astrid reminded herself to beat up Friar later.

_"Fine, fine! Questions, questions! Just ask them already," _Martha mumbled, _"before I die of being around this idiot here."_

Hiccup opened his mouth to ask something, but Astrid interrupted before he could do so. "Do you have a freaking off button!"

_"Sort of, good for you. We can silence ourselves to you, which means I could make myself heard to only one person, if I want. Which means I could have all the arguments I want with George here in your subconscious without you hearing," _Martha seethed.

_"That's right,"_ George said in something between a giggle and a snort.

"Is he drunk?" Hiccup asked quietly.

_"Hiccup. Disembodied voices cannot get drunk. However, if they could, I would ultimately assume that,"_ Martha chortled.

_"Yes, I am drunk,"_ George said in a voice too serious to be true.

"Here... I've been thinking about this. Where were you when the, erm, 'person in the cave' tried to change us into dragons?" Hiccup questioned.

_"In another chamber, of course."_ Martha answered simply.

"Why didn't Toothless follow us?"

_"Maybe the magic of the cave repelled him,"_ Martha guessed. _"I can't be sure, but that's probably it."_

"What happened to our bodies?"

_"The, quote unquote 'person in the cave' changed them back to their original states when he found that he couldn't turn them into dragons. They're at the cave."_

"How old are our- I mean, your bodies?"

"Adults, the equivalent of twenty-to-twenty-two-year-old humans.

"What do you plan to get for helping us out?"

Martha and George were silent.

"Well?"

_"We want our bodies back,"_ George said quietly. _"The Keeper said, that if we helped you-"_

"Keeper?" Astrid interrupted, eyes widened alongside Hiccup's. However, Hiccup didn't remember the time Friar mentioned this person. "Who's the-"

_"Idiot!"_ Martha snarled, _"We weren't supposed to mention his name!"_

"It's the thing in the cave, isn't it," Hiccup started excitedly. "The thing that was trying to turn us into dragons-"

_"Forget it,"_ Martha said. It was obvious that she wasn't going to say anything more.

"Fine," Hiccup murmured. "What does this 'Keeper' plan to get for helping us out?"

Before Martha could protest, George answered immediately. _"He wants to get out of that cave. He's as chained to it as we are, because we entered it. The person that made him Keeper really just cursed him, and once this prophecy's fulfilled, he'll be free. Only he can let people out, and only on special circumstances, and we weren't that lucky."_

A clicking noise was audible, although only heard by Hiccup and Astrid. The voices had gone silent.

Neither of the teenagers were sure if they entirely liked their bodies' owners or not.

* * *

"Hunting," Friar proclaimed after the morning meal.

"If you wanted us to hunt, then why did you feed us?" Astrid mumbled dully.

"Well, you're still hungry, aren't you? That wasn't very much to eat..."

Hiccup's stomach moaned, and he blushed.

"There you go." Friar lifted her head. "Well, since you're oh-so-good at flying right now, you can follow me to the forest by air. The tricky part is getting up in the air without running, or a high-altitude jump-start. Because... well, you should know by now how busy the ground is by now. Ta ta!" she giggled before running out of the cave.

Astrid and Hiccup barely managed to follow her out of the cave, only to witness her jumping into the sky, flying toward the forest.

Astrid looked about ready to copy the elder dragon, but Hiccup placed his tail on her shoulder to stop her. "Don't you think it'll be hard?"

Astrid scoffed. "Hard is trying to jump from tree to tree in an apparently hard way."

Then, she jumped up, wings beating furiously, only to shame herself by crashing into the ground after gaining only about ten feet of altitude.

She immediately gave Hiccup a look that plainly said, _don't-you-dare-say-'I-told-you-so'_.

But Hiccup was already in his lost world of thought. "Maybe... if we... hmm..."

Astrid's tail thumped against the ground impatiently, not wanting to be in the gazes of the other dragons, however bustling the area was.

"We need to rely on thrust," Hiccup decided suddenly. "You were only using your hind legs that time, right? Maybe if we use all four legs... man, I wish Toothless was here. He taught me everything I know- about dragons, of course."

Astrid looked down. "I wonder what's going on at Berk right now. But I feel awfully calm about it. It's not like Stoick will start another dragon war while we're gone..."

Hiccup shuddered, not sure if that last statement was entirely true.

"Awfully calm? Wow, Astrid, I never saw that in you," Hiccup said, attempting to help the mood. But he felt strangely well about what was going back on Berk as well. Dragon's intuition, maybe?

"Whatever. Let's just focus at the matter at hand. And that would be, following Friar." She pawed her left hand... claw... against the ground, like a nervous horse.

"Okay, I'll try first." Hiccup stood up, leaping into the air with full force. He felt himself rising, flying upwards... then falling down with an abrupt thud.

"Fail, Hiccup," Astrid giggled, which didn't seem entirely possible for her to do. The surprise was enough to give Hiccup a dazed expression, and Astrid started frowning again. "You forgot to use your wings."

"Ah," Hiccup said stupidly.

He looked around, trying not to look at Astrid. "Um." His world began to retake its focus, and he crouched down, as if ready to pounce. Eyes gazing at Astrid's feet... hands... claws, he shuffled his hind legs.

"Well?" she tested impatiently.

Hiccup thrust himself upward, wings thudding against the slight breeze. He was rising quickly, he found with a sense of satisfaction.

Before he flipped over and fell on his back.

A snicker sounded from close by. Astrid and Hiccup snapped their heads to the direction of the suspect, who turned out to be a small, golden-eyed dragon.

"Wow, you really are a mental defect, aren't you? You don't even know how to do something as simple as_ that_." The dragon was female, and Hiccup knew he had met her before, but he couldn't put his finger on it...

Oh, yeah. This was the trainee that had confronted him when he was carrying Astrid out of the caves, after that crash in the canyon. Now, what was her name...

"Okay, I take that back. That's a pretty hard skill," she said reluctantly. Her eyes grew wide and curious. "But I saw you guys flying yesterday. I was thinking that you were pretty professional..." Then, she snorted. "I guess not."

"Professional?" Hiccup blinked.

"Yes... you're Hiccups, right?" the dragon questioned, a tint of aggression in her voice.

"No, no... Hiccups, oh, whoops, I mean, Hiccup. It's Hiccup," the green-eyed boy stuttered.

"Still weird," she said, shaking her head in mock disapproval.

"You know each other?" Astrid asked. A guarded emotion that Hiccup couldn't discern was evident in her voice.

"Yeah, you were unconscious, and I ambushed him because he was intruding on the nest," the trainee said proudly, puffing out her chest.

"Ze.. Xer..." Hiccup tried.

"Xeral," the female dragon said with a bored expression. "Honestly, is it that hard to remember?"

"No, I'm actually pretty good at names... I guess... but you really don't think about names when the first living thing you've seen in days leaps out and attacks you, right?" Hiccup attempted to joke.

Xeral rolled her eyes. "Anyways... you might want to learn that flight technique before Friar gets on your back. I know it already, though that was Hel herself to learn..."

She grunted. "Anyways. If you want to do that, make sure you're not near any objects. You can still do this, though, but if your wings hit something as hard as stone... _Odin_, does it hurt. Whelp... just make sure that you're twisting your wings a lot, and make sure your strokes are as wide as possible. And you can't, _can't_ let anything be stiff. First flight rule in the book- _never make your flying parts too stiff_."

"Um... gotcha," Hiccup said lamely. He tensed up, before remembering Xeral's words. He tried to relax, but to no avail; it was too unnatural to do without all of his concentration, which had to be focused on flight.

"I only said _too_ stiff. Not stiff at all. And I was talking about during flight, not preparing for flight," Xeral sniffed.

Hiccup frowned, and Astrid's tail whacked Friar's cave's walls in impatience. He gulped, before leaping up with an uncertain grace.

He found himself keeping a wide berth from all nearby objects. His wings flew in 180-degrees motions, almost similar to a hummingbird, but not as fast. His stronger-than-human heart beat faster than his wings.

"That's the way to do it!" Xeral cheered from below as Hiccup ascended into the clouds. He felt the two grounded females follow suit, rising into the sky with him.

The thrill of flight filled Hiccup to the point where the emotion almost frightened him. Nonetheless, his passion for flight was accepted.

He suddenly stopped in the air, but purposely. Did he hear George whoop as he started to drop? He sped past Astrid and Xeral, who looked after him bewilderedly.

Nonetheless, the thrill was filling him up to the brim. His wings pounded against the air currents, a sense of rarely obtained power in his claws- the power over the sky. He propelled himself upwards, accelerating with utmost force, dragon's wings fleeting over the clouds...

...huh?

Where was he? He looked around in his flight, not recognizing a bit of the place that he was in. Well, of course, he could see the Valley of Hills, and the sky dragon's nesting spot, but he didn't know the place he was in right now. At least he was in the sky. The sky was his advantage, Hiccup realized.

"Idiot," a voice hissed behind him. Hiccup whipped around, causing him to lose altitude dramatically. He faltered before rising up to reach the speaker's height, who would be Astrid.

"It's not so bad," Xeral laughed. "But I agree."

Hiccup gave both of them a pouting look.

"Let's go down to the trees. I like this part of the forest," Xeral abruptly said, looking almost hungry for adventure. Before Astrid or Hiccup could object, she was lost to the trees.

"Rebellious one, eh?" Hiccup said conversationally.

"She's not the only one," Astrid said, giving Hiccup a very pointed look before following the young dragon.

Toothless raised his head to the sky. The clouds whisked by, fluffy-looking and inviting. He snorted, a hint of a whimper in his scornful noise. He missed flying, but he missed Hiccup more, so he pressed on.

The forest was strangely quiet. Toothless's belly was full from an elk, proving that he was perfectly capable of hunting flightlessly, although he'd rather have fish. But even fish could become tiring after such a long time of nonstop sea.

He frowned. There was a noise up ahead... and... could it be?

Dragon, Hiccup, Astrid. Three scents flooded his nostrils, but something wasn't right. Hiccup and Astrid's scents were strongly mixed with two other dragon's scents, almost overwhelming the humans' original scents.

He feared the worse. But hope drove him on, telling him that maybe they _didn't_ get eaten by a dragon... maybe...

There was the constant snapping of branches, and hushed voices speaking a language that Toothless knew. It was a form of Dragonese, but not the one he spoke. At least he could understand this language... but he hadn't spoken it in so long, that he wondered if he could still speak it.

He watched from a few bushes, and most of his hope drained out when he only found three dragons coming into view.

* * *

"Do you _want_ to attract Night Furies?" Xeral snarled.

"Geez, it's just a few branches," Hiccup grumbled.

"Night... Furies? You have... Night Furies here?" Astrid blinked.

"Yep. But, they're not too much of a trouble. They're kind of like bumblebees. We've got a truce with them- if we don't bother them, or vice versa, everything will be fine." Xeral sniffed. "I smell one..."

Hiccup's eyes widened, not considering the possibility that Xeral was just joking. "Where?"

"Close..." Xeral murmured.

"_Here_," a voice whispered in a hiss. The three adolescents snapped their heads toward the sound.

A Night Fury with bloodshot eyes bounded from the bushes, almost silent. And it chose its target.

Hiccup.

"_Why_? Why you smell of Hiccup!" It snarled, pinning the boy to the ground. Astrid snapped at it, bravely pouncing onto its back, but it only snapped out its wings, throwing her against a tree and making her succumb to unconsciousness.

Xeral, however, whistled under her breath. "That was a harsh throw... hey, dude, we come in peace." She cautiously neared the ebony dragon, trying her hardest not to show fear.

"_Peace__!_ Lies!" The dragon whipped its head around to face Xeral, pale green eyes wild. "What peace you speak of! You feed on humans!"

Xeral stuck out her tongue. "Ew. Humans. This island hasn't seen one in years... we've only heard of them through nursery tales. But... shouldn't you know that?"

There was a glint in the dragon's eye, but his snarl didn't falter. "How I tell these are not lies?"

"So you're not from here," Xeral concluded.

"No matter! Tell me why boy smell of Hiccup!" It gazed at (ironically) Hiccup, with darkened, blazing eyes.

"Can I see your tail?" Hiccup blurted. He only barely grasped what he just said, _after _he said it.

"Great, Night Fury here has a human complex, and now Hiccups has a tail one?" Xeral said lamely, obviously not fearing for Hiccup's life at all... or at least, not trying to show it.

"Hic-cups?" The Night Fury stared at the dragon under him.

"It's Hiccup," said former human groaned.

The dragon tilted his head this way and that, gazing at the boy pinned down by him with nothing other than curiosity. He released Hiccup and stepped away, studying him and moving into a sitting position. His tail sweeped around to rest on his feet... and its left tail fin was a bright red with a skull on it...

"Omigods! TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup screeched ecstatically, tackling his dragon friend. Said dragon was bewildered, but let the smaller black-scaled dragon do so.

"Hiccup?" Toothless asked confusedly as Hiccup looked up, eyes brimming with tears. As if on cue, Toothless hiccuped.

"BUDDY! I can't believe I can understand you now!" Hiccup exclaimed all too quickly.

Toothless's eyes widened after a moment. "Oooh! Hiccup!" He gave a grin so ridiculous that Xeral thought she would die of all the corniness.

"Uh, I hate to break your happy reunion, but you just knocked Astrid unconscious," she stated bluntly.

* * *

"So he can understand us now?"

"Yep!"

"And he was the Night Fury that knocked me unconscious?"

"Yep!"

"And he spent days on end trying to find us? In the ocean?"

"Yep!"

"And the purple dragon ate butter for breakfast yesterday?"

"Ye... what?"

"Just checking to see if you were really paying attention."

Astrid had quickly regained consciousness, and was now summing up all Toothless had told Hiccup. Well, Hiccup was summing it up for her. Toothless watched patiently, and Xeral started playing with his red tail fin in boredom, before realizing how immature it was and stopping.

"Poor Friar. She's probably killing herself right now, trying to find us."

"Yeah... oh well. Toothless is here!" Hiccup said gleefully.

Astrid nodded absentmindedly. It felt so weird, talking a dragon she had already met and associated with before... especially since she was personal with Toothless, and hopefully vice versa.

"Well, we should find her then, shouldn't we?" Xeral butted in, voice extremely impatient.

"Ye... yeah," Hiccup said with a quick nod, before leaping up into the air. "But, we should bring Toothless back to the nest." He heard Astrid and Xeral following him, but a loud noise that sounded like a whine and a shriek brought him back down.

"Oh... Toothless..." he said sadly as he landed. The dragon's red tail fin flashed in the dark surroundings of the forest.

"I have an idea," Astrid said. "Just put his tail... fin... thingamajingy in the position, so he can fly in a straight line back to the dragon's camp... would that work?"

"Dragon's camp?" Toothless said worriedly.

"It's okay, bud, the dragons there are friendly, and none of them are bigger than you," Hiccup explained, fiddling with the Night Fury's tail fin in response to Astrid's idea. Toothless slowly nodded.

"Okay," Hiccup said. "You can't turn at all if you're flying, though, or you'll fall. Got it?"

Toothless nodded. "Where does Toothless fly? Which way?"

"Southwest," Xeral said.

"Okay," Toothless nodded for the third time. He didn't hesitate jumping up, hearing the three others fly behind him. Oh, how he wished he could fly without this prosthetic...

* * *

"NIGHT FURY!"

Screams rose loudly from below, an almost deafening sound to Toothless's ears. His eyes grew wide and his pupils narrowed, darting from running dragon to running dragon...

"It's FINE!" Xeral bellowed. "It comes in PEACE!" This nearly failed to stop the oncoming dragons, ready to attack, but they visibly faltered.

The first landing spot Toothless could see came to his eye, which was ironically Friar's cave. He landed uncertainly, a bit clumsy due to his fake tail fin, much to his dismay. Night Furies were supposed to be naturally graceful.

The scene was now deathly silent, and most dragons were petrified, gazing at Toothless, mothers too busy staring to usher their children into their caves. Astrid and Hiccup landed on Toothless's left side, and Xeral took the spot to his right. Astrid found herself staring at Tristan, who stared back.

She certainly didn't expect the toddler to yell out, "Cool!"

Before his mother could catch him, he had flown up next to Xeral, who tensed. Toothless sat down slowly as Tristan neared, sniffing the Night Fury.

"You smell like fish," he giggled. " I like fish... you also smell like the ocean. But not like sea dragons. You just smell like you've been in the ocean for a long time..." he sneezed on Toothless's flank, who recoiled. Then he leaned down and began sniffing Tristan from head to toe, whose increased giggling filled the silent air.

Dragons began to whisper among themselves, and Astrid heard Hiccup ask, "Who is he?"

"Tristan," she stated bluntly, willing for him to ask this later.

Toothless stopped familiarizing with the young sky dragon, spinning his head to the side to sneeze, and also causing some of the dragons below to flinch. Then he turned back, blinking lazily, pupils large and round. His very stance showed calm, and even friendlyness, and this let the sky dragons feel visibly relaxed.

"Um... go back to your mom... kid," Xeral said impersonally.

Tristan sniffed. "That's not my mum. I have no mum. Or dad."

"Oh," she said.

But the little dragon with his greenish eyes simply grinned. "Oh! I know!" He looked at Astrid. "You can be my mommy!" Then he looked at Hiccup. "And you be my daddy!"

"Uhhhmm..." Hiccup responded intelligently, before hearing a spout of curses from a certain female medicine dragon in the forest.

* * *

**YOU KNOW YOU WANNA BE A DADDY, HICCUP.**

**The question is, if you would make a good one... and if Astrid would be willing to... um. Let's just stick to the present here.  
**


	9. Breaking Bliss

**OMGWTFBBQ? A new chapter after all this? Yes, I am insane.**

**You probably thought I was giving up after all this. But yes, I was! Ha! I was just waiting for something else to happen... and I have all summer now, so... **

**Truthfully, I saw the over 10k hits on this story so I tried working on this again, and look what happened. **

**Funnily enough, I still remember a lot of stuff that was supposed to happen in this story. So far, any suggestions to keep it going until then? Otherwise, the ending will come quicker, but you might just want that...**

**PS. It's kind of short and I didn't edit it, but then again, I finished it just **_**now...**_

**PSS. It's also not as funny as the others, I think. It's more serious. But in the event that I do finish this up, the funnies should come back. ;)**

**PSSS. As always, reviews are motivation. ^^...**

* * *

"No, Toothless, it's pronounced 'moooorrrrnnn-innnnggg'."

"Mrroooownnggg!"

"No! It's not-"

"Moooorrrr, niiiiiinnnghh," Friar cut in as she waltzed into the cave with grace, instructing the dragon to copy her with a series of complicated movements of her arms.

"Mrrrooonniiii..."

"No," she said scornfully, ignoring the frustrated Hiccup. "Moooorr."

"Moooooorrrrr..."

"Niiingh."

"Niii... iiighnh."

"Yes!" she said, throwing her forelegs up in approval. Toothless gurgled happily, then made a little squeak when Friar accidentally fell over.

Hiccup couldn't find the heart to laugh at her. "How do you do that?" he nearly roared.

Toothless, for some reason, couldn't pronounce the word "morning" and Hiccup had been trying to teach him between the time they arrived at the cave, feel asleep, and woke up.

Friar laughed at him as she got up. "Night Furies rely on body language more than speech. That's why they're not used to their more... intelligent cousins' speech."

Toothless snorted indignantly at her, obviously understanding at least part of her speech.

_"Yeah! I always hated the lesser dragons!"_ George cheered in Hiccup's mind, making him blink surprisedly. _"Hey, kid! Look at your chest, there's a scar there. That was from one of those flamey guys."_

Hiccup did so, having to search his chest very thoroughly before he found the miniscule mark between two of his scales.

_"Humans call those 'flamey guys' Monstrous Nightmares,"_ Martha chimed in as Astrid walked up the the three other dragons. _"These dragons adopted the names the humans gave them."_

_"Humans, humans, humans,"_ George snorted mentally. _"Geez, you'd think the dragons were once humans!"_

Silence.

"Voices?" Toothless asked innocently after observing his humans' strange expressions.

Hiccup and Astrid had explained their internal voices as best as they could to the ignorant child, the illiterate Night Fury and the overly uptight teenage dragon while they all waited for Friar.

"Yes," Hiccup smiled happily, Astrid scoffing at how cheesy he looked.

"I suppose you have all the tutoring you need in the flight department," Friar chimed in after a few moments of quiet. "I guess you could go explore the island. Just don't go too close to the shore; there's sea dragons there, and you know we're mostly at war."

"I don't really-" "Sounds great!"

Astrid glared at the overly enthusiastic Hiccup, whose tail was slapping against the ground like an overexcited dog.

"However," Friar started, "I need to get Toothlyness-"

"-Toothless-"

'-acquainted with the leader so he doesn't know he's a threat," Friar finished after clearing her throat. "It should be easy to identify him, what with the tailfin... maybe I can do something to get him flying on his own. We have a lot of supplies in this cave nest."

"I'll go with them," Xeral offered as Toothless and Hiccup hung their heads dejectedly. Astrid, however, bristled a little at how happy the other dragon looked at the prospect of travelling with them, since she knew that it wasn't because she wanted to hang with her.

_When did you start liking Hiccup!_ she thought jealously.

_"Jeaaalooous~"_ George whispered mischievously in the back of her and Hiccup's minds.

"Jealous?" Hiccup perked up cluelessly. "Who's jealous? What?"

_"Someone wants to admit their undy- AAAH! Martha, you promised you wouldn't do that!"_

_"You deserved it,"_ Martha said nonchalantly.

"I don't want to know what she just did," Hiccup decided.

"It sounded like she was kicking him in the-"

"Too much information!" Friar began pushing Astrid out the cave, then decided Hiccup was a better victim after the younger female glared at her.

"Alright, we'll go, we'll go," Astrid sighed, slipping through the ferns hanging from the top of the exit.

"Yes!" Hiccup cheered. "See you later, Toothless! Bye, Friar!"

Toothless grunted at his former rider, Xeral frowning after him.

"Um, you too... Xeral... um..." he threw in obliviously before Astrid practically dragged him out of the cave.

Before Hiccup and Astrid could melt into the crowd, a body landed in front of them, startling them greatly.

"Hi!" Tristan greeted them, tail swaying happily. "Where are you going? I've been waiting for you to come out!"

_"I thought little kids were impatient,"_ George hummed quietly.

"Huh?" Tristan cocked his head.

"What?" Astrid tilted her head as well.

"Oh, um... so where are you going?" he asked again, sitting down.

"We were going to explore the isl-"

"Oooh! Oooh! Bring me, bring meee!" Tristan cheered, leaping back to his feet. "I know everything about the island! Everything!"

"Sounds interesting," Hiccup suggested, looking at Astrid for approval. His smile was sickly sweet, making the girl wince.

"What are you looking at me for?" she huffed, sounding a little bit miffed. Hiccup took this as a 'yes' and translated it to the confused tot, who cheered before pushing through the crowd.

The two former humans nearly lost the torquoise-eyed boy in the groups, but eventually they were out and into the forest.

* * *

"This is my favorite place," Tristan whispered adventurously, stalking through the undergrowth with his two new friends. "I always go here to meet my best friend!"

"Your best friend?" Hiccup inquired as they came to a semi-clearing, where there were a few rocks to sunbathe on. Tristan plopped onto a rock, smiling contentedly.

"Yeah, she's not here now." His eyes widened. "I'd let you see her, but you'd tell on me!"

Astrid opened her mouth, but yet again, Hiccup interrupted her. "Why would we?"

"Good point! But if I told you why, you'd _really _tell-"

"Tristaaan?" a small girl's voice called as another dragon stepped on twigs and branches farther into the trees. Neither Hiccup nor Astrid could see her. "Is that you?"

"Oh, no! No, wait, there's othe-"

It was too late. A timid-looking dragon with pretty light blue eyes blinked up at the three, squeaking when she saw the two former humans. "Aaah! They're gonna tell, they're gonna tell!"

"No, we're not," Astrid said a little scornfully.

"Oh," The new dragon said, her fears instantly quelled as her eyes filled with trust, scooting a little farther into the clearing. "Hi."

"This is Hiccup and Astrid!" Tristan said proudly, swinging his forelegs dramatically as if presenting the two on a stage.

The dragon, still little for her age, crawled shyly onto a warm rock and curled up there, watching the two newcomers with curiosity.

"Hello," Hiccup greeted her warmly, obviously in a good mood.

"Your voice sounds kind of n... nay..."

"Nasal?" Tristan suggested, saying it slowly as if he had only learned the word recently. He then giggled. "Kind of."

Hiccup snorted in slight dismay as Astrid laughed at him.

"Oh! Your voice is pretty," The winged girl admired, looking like she would be blushing if she could. "Like my momma's. She has a pretty voice and she sings every night, but it's so sad and she doesn't know I'm listening..."

She paused for a moment, then giggled nervously into the silence. "My name's Skylar."

"I'm Hiccup." "Astrid."

"I know," she said with a bashful smile.

"So why didn't you want us to know about Skylar, Tristan?" Astrid asked the little boy, who froze suspiciously.

"Um... um..."

"We can't tell you," Skylar said sadly, blinking her eyes slowly.

"Why not?" Hiccup joined in.

"Because you'll tell," Tristan insisted.

Hiccup was about to protest, but this time it was Astrid that stopped him. "We haven't told anyone yet, and so we're not going to tell anyone. Okay?"

Hiccup gave the girl a side look, as if saying, _How clever._

"Okay," Skylar decided, looking up at them with a painful amount of ignorant trust. "I'm... kind of a sea dragon."

And then, there was a lot of awkward silence.

"It's not so bad," Tristan immediately said. "Even though I'm probably going to fight when I grow up, Skylar's only going to heal people! I won't have to fight her, so we can be friends."

Hiccup and Astrid simultaneously had their minds reeling. They both frowned.

"Wait a second," Astrid said, turning around to go into the trees. Hiccup followed her, worriedly looking over his shoulder and smiling to try and comfort the toddlers waiting behind, who both looked horrified.

"Didn't Friar say that the sea and sky dragons were at war?" Astrid asked slowly, which Hiccup nodded to.

"That's not good... for them to be friends," Hiccup gradually said. "It's like a forbidden friendship."

"And looking at all the old fairytales, it'll probably turn out being a forbidden love, since they're the opposite genders," Astrid concluded jeeringly.

"Who knew Astrid read fairytales?" Hiccup joked.

"The point is... they're friends when they're obviously not supposed to be," Astrid sighed."We should probably stop it before it gets any deeper than an easygoing toddler friendship. Who knows how those two ended up friends... and even though they're dragons and we're not staying here forever, I don't want to mess up their lives because we didn't do anything."

"Wait... no... let me think." Hiccup sat down, Astrid following him as he massaged his forehead. He knew that she disliked standing by and waiting for others, so he was trying to figure out a diplomatic solution quickly.

For the moment, he changed the subject. "Who knows how they met up... huh? This reminds me of me and Toothless."

"What are you talking about?" Astrid demanded raising her voice a bit.

"Forbidden friendship. Not necessarily between two different species in this case, but between two warring breeds," Hiccup murmured. "And look how that turned out. Peace for all Vikings and dragons on Berk!"

"Your point is? Hiccup, that was a one in a million chance," Astrid argued. "These two aren't going to be that lucky."

"Here, how about this," Hiccup started, weighing his chances as he began to compromise. "We don't tell right away, and we'll watch them, but if anything goes awry, then we can tell someone about it. Okay?"

"I don't trust this."

"I know you don't."

"No, Hiccup... this isn't a good idea. We have to-"

_"Let them be."_

"What?" Astrid perked up a little at the sound of Martha's voice.

_"I said, let them be."_ A pause. _"It's for the best. They should be friends."_

"What makes you say that?" Astrid sniffed, sounding a bit miffed.

_"Just trust me."_

Astrid was about to argue, but suddenly her roiling emotions died down. Despite how much she hated to admit it... this voice had saved her from a fate of becoming dragon guts splayed on the tops of multiple trees.

_"Come on,"_ George's voice whined. _"Tell you what: We'll convince the Keeper-"_

_"Shut up about the Keeper-"_

_"-to instantly transport you and that Night Fury to your home island after this is all done with... or something like that. I don't know!"_

"I'd take that," Astrid said thoughtfully, Hiccup frowning a bit.

_"We can't guaruntee it. He's just trying to bribe you,"_ Martha warned.

"Whatever." Astrid shook her head indecisively. "Fine. We won't tell anyone about it. Yet."

_"Good,"_ Martha and George said at the same time.

And then all was quiet.

Astrid and Hiccup turned back to the clearing to tell the two toddler dragons of their choice together.

* * *

Martha's and George's souls lay pressed against each other on the invisible platform, tangling and untangling their tails affectionately.

"You're an idiot," she teased.

"You have anxiety problems," he chuckled back at her, nuzzling her cheek as he enjoyed the lame insults they shared.

"I could replace a block of stone with your head and it would make no difference with your mindset," she joked back just as lamely, laughing softly as his breath tickled her ear.

"I could stick some coal up your butt and it would turn into a diamond within three days," he sniffed, making her laugh.

"Okay, that one wasn't lame enough. You lost," she decided, slapping his tail with hers playfully.

"It was worth it!" he pointed out, rolling onto his back. "Always worth it."

"You're awfully romantic today," she teased, plopping herself onto his chest. "And... somewhat intelligent, for once."

"Only 'cause you're in such a good mood! I should act intelligent more often," he said thoughtfully.

"Yes. That would be nice."

_"Aww,"_ a voice resounded from over their heads.

The pair sat up, stretching themselves as a half-figure appeared from over them. It was black and shadowy, but didn't appear fully formed.

_"I'm sorry to interrupt such a rare moment,"_ the figure apologized, landing by sitting quietly on the smooth, transparent land.

"Is everyone in a good mood today?" George remarked.

_"Everything is going well,"_ the figure reasoned, _"and I no longer have that girl with the headband- err, Astrid, trying to escape from me. That is long gone. I await the moment I'm out of this wretched cave, and that moment is thankfully coming closer."_

"You and us," Martha added in, her voice strained.

_"Of course,"_ it sighed. _"As soon as I am released, you will be too. It's not something I control, it is something that will happen."_

It paused. _"Perhaps... you shouldn't have told those two about the two toddler dragons."_

"And why not?" Martha shot back, curling her nonexistent lips a bit. "Those two were like us back then."

_"There must not be anything in the way of the prophecy. All obstacles must be as clear as possible."_

"What's an interesting story without trials?" George reasoned, making Martha and the figure glare and growl at him. He gulped, picking at an annoying scale on his neck.

"Speaking of that... Keeper, how long do you think it'll be until the prophecy is fulfilled?"

_"Soon. You know that I cannot pinpoint it exactly."_

"We know," Martha and George said together.

"Just... 'soon' isn't good enough," Martha sighed.

_"But at least you know something, than nothing at all. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss." _A smile seemed to form on the Keeper's shadowy face._ "I will see you... soon."_

The two spirits faded out of sight, and only then did the Keeper sigh to itself, rubbing its ghostly fingers together. _"Ignorance can be bliss indeed... but, really, it is bliss a little more often than simply _sometimes_..."_


End file.
